Merlin's Tale Book 1: Fly To The Max
by Warhawk Talon
Summary: Seven teens are abducted off the streets of town. Five months later, Max and the Flock are confronted by the latest generation of Itex's hybrids. Will Max be able to survive the D.S.B squad? After The Final Warning. James P owns Maximum Ride. Complete!
1. Prologue

_**Mississauga, Ontario, Canada**_

**???**

That day had been the worst day of my life. I was walking home from school after having a pop quiz in math that no-one had been ready for, earning a failing grade on my mid-term report card, and all while sitting in clothes that still stunk of the pasta sauce that had been dumped on my head during Home Ec.

I was 15 years old. I had blue eyes, dark brown/black hair, fair skin, and was completely average. I wasn't anyone special, wasn't a member of any team, no special skills.

All that was about to change.

As I was walking home, I saw something strange. A large garbage truck was heading down the street, even though it wasn't garbage day. As it passed by on the other side of the street, I saw something that made my blood run cold.

Big Billy and his gang.

William Peterson was the resident tough guy at my school. He considered it his life's mission to annoy, threaten, and abuse anyone smaller or smarter than him. Seeing as he was 6 foot 9, weighed at least 220 lbs and had the learning capacity of a third grader, that meant pretty much the whole school. He had gathered himself a group of followers who were like blind worshipers that did anything and everything he wanted. He was the one who had dumped the pasta sauce on my head earlier that day.

I considered running, but he had seen me now, and running would only make it twice as bad when they caught me, for I was a skinny, lazy runt of a boy compared to them, and most of them were on the high school track team with collections of medals and red ribbons to prove it. So, I decided to keep still as the gang approached me. Billy waited until he was right in my face to speak. Probably so that he could see the look on my face when he drenched me in his cigarette smelling saliva.

"Hey Runt," he said, "You didn't thank me for the sauce I gave you earlier. You wouldn't want me to think you were ungrateful, would you?"

"Sorry, I didn't get a chance before the teacher sent you to the office. Speaking of which, I thought that you had detention. How did you get out of it?" I said all this with a neutral tone that could be taken for worried, curious, or rebellious. I just happened to be all three.

"I had a note saying that I had a dentist appointment right after school." He replied impishly and still at the same time managing to be good natured.

_Maybe I can get out of this after all_, I thought. "Well, don't let me keep you. We wouldn't want you to be late."

"Seeing as I am about to be _your_ dentist, that should be the least of your worries. Hold him down boys."

They grabbed me before I could take five steps.

Five minutes later, I had a black eye, the beginnings of a goose egg size bump, and two teeth that were no longer in my mouth. _Fine way to start June. The month where everyone is busy and excited because school is about to end, Billy decides to show it by going into total destruction mode._ As I started once again for home, I watched Billy's gang walking away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the garbage truck from earlier come this way. As it passed the gang, it slowed down to a crawl. When it pulled away, it wasn't what I saw that made my blood run cold for the second time that day.

It was what I _didn't_ see.

Big Billy and his gang were nowhere to be seen. It was as if they had vanished into thin air.

The truck began to pick up speed, heading straight towards me. I turned and started sprinting as fast as I could, hoping that I could make it to an alleyway before the truck caught up with me, and whatever happened to the others happened to me too. Unfortunately, the street was in the suburbs, with tall fences and hedges blocking any hope of escape. I was racing flat out, faster then I had ever run before, but the truck still caught up beside me. Keeping pace with me, one of the vehicle's side doors opened, and with incredible force, I was sucked inside by a vacuum-like vortex of air.

For one brief moment, before I was entombed in complete darkness, with the sound of one of the gang member's cries for mercy and help filling my ears, I caught a glimpse of a twisted, curling symbol with one word printed in bold, boxed letters on it.

**Itexicon.**

Then everything in my world went black.

* * *

**This is my first fanfiction! I hope you like it, more chapters to come. –Dygen Entreri**


	2. Good Day? Not Now

_**Five months later**_

_**Arizona, United States of America**_

**MAX**

"Come on Max, we've still got three more stores to go to!" That was Nudge, who, as usual, was unable to understand why I was tired. Just because she can still be excited after six hours of non-stop shopping, she thinks the whole world can do the same! Of course the rest of the mall was doing nothing to prove her wrong, with everyone carrying so many bags that I was half afraid that the School had given everyone super-strength.

I know what you're thinking, can I go to your school? I want super-strength! Sorry kids, my school isn't for the faint of heart. And the name "School" is a misnomer. Here's the short version for those who have joined us in the middle of the story: The School was a top secret lab run buy a power hungry company called Itex. It was located in the middle of Death Valley in Arizona, just above the Badwater Basin (that address always cracks me up). At the lab, a group of mad scientists experimented with human and animal genetics. My family and I are the results of this "research."

My family, or Flock as we say, is a group of hybrids hybrids. We were kidnapped at birth and our DNA was altered so that we were only 98% human. The other two percent: Bird. So yes, we have wings, along with being extremely strong and having superior senses.

I guess I'm not doing too much to convince you that this wasn't a good thing. When we were at the School the "whitecoats," as we call them, performed tests on us that I can only describe as torture. Eventually we were rescued by one of the whitecoats, Jeb Batchelder, who kept us safe for some years before disappearing. We later found out he had gone back to the School, even though he insists on being on our side. Two years after Jeb's disappearance, we were found by the Erasers, the human wolf hybrids that work as Itex's enforcers. Since then we've been on the run from the Erasers, their robot replacements the Flyboys, and everything else Itex can throw at us.

There have been some good points though. I've made some progress with my mission of saving the world (I'm ambitious, I know), and I've managed to find my mother. I also found out that Jeb is my dad, but its hard to warm up to a guy who's helped to put you into a dog cage. Also on the plus side, we've managed to beat everyone that has tried to ruin our lives so far.

So as it stands, here's my family: I'm Max, short for Maximum Ride, the eldest girl at sixteen years, and the leader. Fang, my right wing man, is tall, dark, and silent. He and I have a bit of a "thing" for each other. Iggy is our sarcastic watchman, which is ironic because he's blind. He isn't handicapped at all however, just don't move the furniture around without letting him know. He and Fang are both sixteen, same as me.

Nudge is the next oldest at thirteen. She's an African-American chatterbox. We call her Nudge because we're always nudging her to get her to stop talking.

The Gasman and his sister Angel are the only two blood relatives among us. Both are blond and really cute. Gazzy is ten, Angel eleven, but you couldn't tell just by looking. All of us are pretty tall for our ages due to out weird DNA. Why they have their names is obvious though; Angel has pure white wings that make her look, well, angelic. Gazzy, let's just say there is something majorly wrong with his digestive system.

The only one left to talk about is Total. He is a dog that Angel found at the Institute in New York. He basically is Toto from The Wizard of Oz, with a couple major differences. Total is also a hybrid, so he has wings and he can talk. Trust me, this is more annoying then cool.

Now, where were we? Oh yes, shopping.

"Sorry Nudge, but we don't have time for anything else. We have to meet the boys at the food court in five minutes for lunch, and we're on the opposite end of the mall." I had been watching the clock for two hours, begging time to pass faster.

"But Maaax," Angel whined, "We NEED to go here! Total needs a new collar!" She pointed at a sign that said "Tip Top Trotters-Pet Store" and underneath was the words "Big Sale on All Accessories!"

I sighed and was about to say no, but she knew what I was going to say, and gave me the Adorable Disney Deer eyes, and the words changed to an exasperated "One minute." Two minutes later I sighed again as we got out past some cages that looked like the ones I used to live in. We ran as fast as we could while still appearing normal. Three minutes and two seconds later we were at the food court, looking for the guys. We saw them in front of a taco stand and walked over.

"You're late."

"Fang, how many times have I told you not to set your watch fast?" I retorted.

"Firstly, my watch is always on time, and secondly, none, as this is the first watch that I have ever bought." Damn, he got me there.

Angel and Nudge smiled and pounced on the Gasman and Iggy. "Did you get us our tacos?"

Iggy smiled and handed them two tacos. "Here you go, one with everything for Angel, and a vegetarian for Nudge." As we started to scarf down the food I reflected on how I really should have taught them table manners. But when you are learning to eat while on the run you miss a few classes. Speaking of running, it was time for us to head back to Mom's.

"Come on guys, we've got to go. Mom wanted us to help with dinner tonight."

Iggy smiled. "So by that, you mean she wants me to help."

"Yep" It is always a surprise to anyone who hasn't seen it before. Even though he's blind, Iggy is the best cook out of all of us. I could burn the house down making a sandwich.

We arrived at Mom's ten minutes later. Ella was at the door waiting for us, looking slightly nervous.

"Mom, their home!" she called. My amazing mom, Dr. Martinez, came into the front hallway as we walked in. She was smiling, but I could tell that something was wrong. I tapped Iggy on the back of his hand to warn him to be ready to get out of there.

"Hi Mom. Is there something you want to tell me?" Okay, so being subtle isn't my strong point.

She hugged me close and whispered so that only the flock and I could hear. "You have a couple of visitors. They and your, ah, Jeb want to talk to you." Great. What started as a good day has just been ruined.


	3. Apologies and Assignment Accepted

_She hugged me close and whispered so that only the flock and I could hear. "You have a couple of visitors. They and your, ah, Jeb want to talk to you." Great. What started as a good day has just been ruined._

**MAX**

We followed Mom into the living room where there were three men standing in front of the couch. One was Jeb Batchelder, my "father" and the most influential and annoying man in my life, besides Fang. The other two looked like the standard Secret Service agents. Tall, white, with prefect black suits and mirrored sunglasses. I immediately started to get the heebie-jeebies. Yes, that is a technical term, look it up in the dictionary.

_Angel, scan their minds and see what they want._ I thought. I a few seconds I heard her reply that they didn't give off mean vibes. _But they've got really strong minds, so they_ _could be hiding something,_ she added. _Thanks Angel._

Oops, did I forget to mention that? In addition to the wings, the whitecoats also gave us some special abilities. I can fly super fast, Fang can go invisible, Iggy see when he's snowblind, and Nudge can feel memories on objects and attract metal. Angel's got the most though. Are you ready? Okay here goes. Angel has mind reading, mind control, breathing underwater, talking to fish, and minor shape changing. And she's only seven years old! We all get a little scared of her sometimes.

Jeb started the introductions. "Max, these are Agents Cook and Miller. They work for the FBI and would like to speak with you about some things."

"About what?" I asked, immediately suspicious. The last time the FBI had talked with us, we ended up going to a horribly sweet and totally fake home with an Itex employee, Anne Walker, who was Jeb's boss at the time.

Agent Cook started. "Firstly, I would like to apologize for the actions of the spy Anne Walker. It seems that Itex had hired her long before she joined the bureau. When she was recruited, Itex made sure that she was promoted to a position where if there was any hint of they're operations reaching the public ear she would know first. When it was revealed where her true loyalties lay, we found a lot of information on Itex that most of the department had no idea existed. In short, the director wants to make amends by giving you complete access to all of the Itex files." As he finished his speech, Agent Miller spoke. "And before you ask what the catch is, all we want is for you to fill in any of the gaps in the information."

I frowned. They must have done their homework on how I react to offers by the government. "How would we be able to update your files? We won't come into your head office and sift through a whole library's worth of files."

Agent Cook smiled. "You won't have to. We can download that whole library onto a computer, and when ever you are using the info and you see something that you can add to, you can just type it in, and it will automatically update our files as well. It works in reverse as well. If we find out some new data, we will update the files, and send you an email to let you know."

Iggy spoke up. "So it's like Wikipedia."

The agents and I smiled. "Exactly like Wikipedia," replied Miller. I decided that maybe there were some nice government people. I just had had the misfortune to never meet any before.

"So what else did you come here for? I know an apology isn't all you want to tell us," Fang said. I had almost forgotten he was here.

Jeb took up the narrative. "The files that were uncovered contained some information about how Itex obtained the, ah, the _subjects_ for their experiments. Most of the data is about how they stole or bought the babies that they had modified, with most of the modifications being made without the parent's consent."

Nudge took a deep breath. "Is there any information on our parents because I once thought I saw my mom in Tipsco and another time I hacked the Itex computer in Florida and found documents that looked like they were about how I was stolen from my mom by ter Bortch and it would be really nice if I could find out once and for all what happened to her and," With unerring accuracy, Iggy slapped his hand over her mouth as she paused for a microsecond to breath.

Both agents had an interesting look that combined shock and relief. "Amen," Cook sighed, and everyone burst out laughing.

"To answer your original question Nudge, that is one of the things that you're going to have to look for in the files. But right now there is a more serious matter. I have already browsed through the most recently used files, and found a record of a plan that Itex was using to kidnap teenagers as a different type of test subject. Apparently they were trying to discover how to change the DNA of someone who has already undergone a large growth spurt. It said that the program had been shut down, but it appears that someone has restarted it. The government has received reports that several teenagers have gone missing in the Greater Toronto Area, or GTA, of Ontario, Canada. We have tried to contact the Canadian government and explain the situation, but they have even less experience in dealing with Itex then the U.S. government, and we…"

I cut agent Miller off "…have no experience outside of the Anne Walker incident."

He nodded. "Correct."

I looked at my flock. "Well guys, I guess we're going to Canada, eh?"


	4. Velcome to Hell

**Thank you to my reviewers. I will try to update more often from now on. I would like to say that if you ever see any mistakes with the original story, please correct me. I would like to keep the back-story true to James Patterson's plot.**

* * *

_**Unknown Time**_

_**Unknown Location**_

**???**

I awoke to the sound of a high-pitched, constantly repeating, beep. I looked over to my side expecting to see my alarm clock. Instead I saw a large monitor like the ones that are hooked up to life support machines. I looked again and saw that it _was_ hooked up to a life support machine. I decided to close my eyes. Not because I wanted to go back to sleep, but because they hurt. In fact, now that I was paying attention to my body and not the annoying beeping sound, I realized that my entire body hurt. At first it was a dull ache, but it was starting to get more and more painful. I sat there and wondered what had happened to me. The last thing that I remembered was flying into the garbage truck. Had whoever was driving decided to throw me back out? Was I in the hospital? It smelled like a hospital, but I could not hear any doctors or nurses moving around.

"Is anybody there?" I called out, and winced at how sore my throat was. I wanted some answers though. "Hello? Could someone please get me a painkiller? I was really starting to hurt now. I heard a noise and opened my eyes to see a man standing in front of me. He was tall, had sand coloured hair and was wearing a white doctor's coat over his ample belly.

"So, you're avake," he said. The words and the tone made it seem like he didn't care much. I wondered how much he was getting paid with my parents' taxes. "How are you feeling? Any discomfort?" It seemed like he was just acting like he was concerned.

"Actually, I am starting to feel really sore all over. Could you give me a painkiller or something?"

"I'm afraid not." Now a small smile started to appear on his face.

"Why not?" Now I was starting to get annoyed. Why wasn't he doing his job?

"Because I don't vant to. I vill enjoy seeing you in pain."

"What! I'll sue you for malpractice when I get out of here!" I grinned through the increasing pain.

"Ha! Vhere do you dink you are? In a hospital? If so, you are sadly mistaken. You are in da laboratory of Itex, a company dat is dedicated to creating a better world, by any means necessary."

Now I was scared, not to mention I felt like every cell in my body was being individually roasted over a grill. "So what do you want with me?"

He truly smiled, which scared me more then anything else he had said yet. "You are to be my greatest creation, one which vill be completely loyal to me and vill destroy all my previous failures."

I would have sworn at him, but by now my throat was so sore that I couldn't make a sound. He laughed at my predicament and continued with his monologue. "I know dat you must be confused as to vhat I am going to do to you. Soon ve vill knock you out again and augment your body with several improvements, and then ve vill let the tveaking I did vis your DNA do the rest. You are actually quite lucky to be still alive. It took five months for your condition to stabilize and let you vake up from your coma. Who knovs, you might end up being happy vis de improvements. Dat is, if the brainvashing chip dat we will put in you allovs you to even remember who you are. Soon, you will be the perfect killing machine, designed to eradicate Itexicon's greatest enemies vunce and for all."

I could barely understand what he was saying, but I knew that it wasn't good news for me. Just before I lost all control of my body, I moved the fingers of my right hand where they lay on the bed. When the man saw what I had done, he simply laughed and strode out of the room, saying "Perhaps I vill vait a bit longer before using da sedative."

Leaving my body to train for what it would experience in hell.


	5. Three days, or Three Hours? Your pick

**I've started a new crossover between Maximum Ride and Fable. **_**Fable II: The Flock Chapters.**_** Please check it out and tell me what you think.**

**Read On ~ DE**

_**Flying somewhere over the USA**_

**MAX**

"Remind me again why we aren't taking a plane."

I groaned. He had been like this since we left Mom's house. "Because Fang, I don't want to cause any problems at an airport, what with us being likely to be recognized." None of us really like being around lots of people, and a mob is not what I want to face. Also, I don't want Angel using her mind powers to control people if it isn't necessary. And let's not even mention the claustrophobia.

"We could have taken a private jet and got there in three hours rather then three days."

"That would work as far as the crowds, but we are supposed to be stealthy while we are there. Showing up at an airport in our own jet would be like phoning Itex before we land and telling them that we are coming to stop them." I could see that he wasn't quite convinced. Time to pull out the big gun. "Finally, the only ones among us who have actually flown on an official airline with proper airports is me, Angel, Nudge, and Total. I do not want to see what happens when Iggy and Gazzy go through customs and are found with bombs on them by the police dogs. We are trying to solve a kidnapping case, not cause an international incident and be arrested as terrorists."

Finally my logic seemed to get through to him and he looked resigned to the trip. We were saved from falling into an awkward silence by Nudge, who swooped in above us and started to offer her opinion.

"You know, I really like just flying along like this. I like flying in a plane to because it's so comfy and there's stuff to do, but we haven't done this for a while where we aren't running from something, just plain flying."

As I said, she started to offer her opinion, seeing as she never stops. I cut her off before she could continue.

"That's a good point Nudge. How about you guys, would you rather have taken a plane or do you like flying like this?

Iggy spoke first. "I like flying like this better. I don't have to deal with the sounds of the airports and I prefer to just hang out with you guys."

"I just like having all that food and relaxing on the plane." Gazzy said just before letting out one of his unfortunate occurrences.

Total poked his head out of Iggy's backpack. "Until I learn to fly by myself properly, I'll stick with going on a plane. It's safer and more comfortable." he sniffed the air. "And it has better air fresheners."

We all laughed at that. Then I looked at Angel. "What do you think Angel, should we take the plane more often?" She nodded and kept silent, obviously focusing on something that I couldn't see.

"Alright then, that settles it. Next time we go on a trip, we will see about getting a jet, and Iggy and I will just have to live with the crowds. Is that all right with you Fang?" I said, looking at the one who had caused this whole conversation. He nodded and I sighed, grateful to have made a good compromise. Onto the next issue.

_Angel, is there something you want to tell me about? You've been very quiet. _

_I though I heard someone scream in my head. It wasn't anyone we know, so I was trying to see if I could learn more about them._

_I thought you couldn't read minds over long distances, and we're miles away from any people._

_I know, it's strange. I'll let you know if I hear anything else._

I smiled at her and focused on where we were going. We wouldn't want to get lost because the fearless leader wasn't paying attention.

Later, after the sun had set, we stopped for the night in a small park that ran along a river. I will always be grateful to the people who try to preserve nature. That includes Brigid Dwyer, although I hope she can carry out her "save the world missions in dangerous places" job without us in the future. Although, it seems that everywhere we go _becomes_ dangerous after we get there. Maybe she's going to work without us in order to avoid being at risk.

Speaking of risk, Angel's little episode earlier was making me nervous. Why did she hear someone scream? Were her mind powers growing, or going out of control? Either way, it was pretty scary!


	6. Welcome to Canada

_**Niagara on the Lake, Canada**_

**MAX**

A day and a half later, we had crossed the border, laughing as we saw the huge lines of cars going through security checkpoints. We certainly didn't have to worry about that! We had decided to take the scenic route and had crossed at Niagara Falls. The American side had some big drops where the water would cascade down, but the Canadian's Niagara falls were ENORMOUS! I mean seriously, I don't know how there was enough water in all of North America to keep it going for more then fifteen minutes. The noise alone was enough to make me want to go to the nearest store and buy industrial sized earplugs! They would be good to have around Nudge too. Angel and Nudge spotted a bunch of boats that took people on rides towards the bottom of the falls, and begged me to let them go, but I braved the Bambi eyes and kept my answer at a firm no. There was no way I was letting any member of my flock have even the slightest chance of drowning in that water. I didn't think that Angel's water breathing and fish talking abilities would save her if she went under there.

We decided to treat ourselves and slept at the Niagara branch of the Hilton. It is _really_ fancy there! Gazzy had a blast ordering junk food from room service in the voice of this really snooty English guy, while Fang, Iggy, and I brought out Fang's laptop and started looking up stuff about the disappearances that we had come to investigate.

"So what do we know?"

"Well, the kids that went missing at first were mostly small cases, like a little kid going missing here and there, with there dead body showing up anytime from weeks to a couple months later. Extremely sad and horrifying, but nothing that seemed beyond normal for these kinds of cases." He turned to me, looking very serious. "Then about six month's ago, in mid May, teenagers in high school started disappearing. The police got very concerned about this, seeing as the teens were being taken in pairs, often couples or best friends, and two teens are a lot harder to grab then an eight year-old. Then in the first week of June, a record of seven teenage boys went missing after school in the city of Mississauga, which is about a half hour drive from downtown Toronto."

Iggy whistled. "Wow, seven guys in one go. I bet the police really freaked out about that."

"Yep, and no bodies of the teenagers that have been taken have ever been found."

I thought about it. "It sounds like Itex was behind all the teenage kidnappings. They must have been using the sets of pairs as tests, to see of their methods of DNA splicing were effective on teenagers. I bet that the group snatch was the batch that would start making their fighting force."

Fang looked back at the screen. "You could be right, seeing as the information says that six of the boys were all members of the track and football teams. Seems like Itex wanted more muscle to start of with, rather then adding lots of extra chemicals to get them strong."

"So where are we going? To Mississauga or will we go and look around Toronto first."

"Hate to tell ya Ig, but you're not going to be looking around anywhere, unless there is a freak snowstorm," I joked. "But anyway, Mississauga is on the way to Toronto, so we will take a look around there first and see if we can find out any information about how the kidnappings happened."

"Pizza and hot dogs are here!"

With that call from the others, we leapt up and grabbed our orders from the very surprised busboy. As the guy turned to leave, he heard something that only confused him more.

"Wait but a moment my good sir; you wouldn't want to forget your tip."

After that, he laughed at seeing the Gasman's mimicry talent and gladly accepted the large tip that he was offered.


	7. Ter Borcht's Success

_**Subterranean, Secret Itex Base, somewhere in the GTA**_

The doors to the operating room swung open and hit the walls with a loud whack as Roland ter Borcht walked through them. A scientist at the computer terminal jumped when he heard the noise and quickly stepped to ter Borcht's side when he saw who it was.

"Und how is dis vun?"

"Well, it seems that the subject has recovered from the modifications to its DNA patterns. It seems that it aged about two years due to the rapid cell division necessary to convert it's body structure so drastically. It should be ready for action immediately after you install the brainwashing chip. I can have everything ready for the operation in five minutes."

"Excellent," ter Borcht smiled. "As long as da chip is operational, the hybrid vill remember nothing of its previous life, and vill be completely loyal to de company. Soon Subject N-41 vill be able to destroy all other hybrids, even dose corrupted by dat traitor Jeb Batchelder."

An hour later, ter Borcht strode out of the room, pulling off slightly bloodstained gloves. A security guard ran up to him.

"Sir, you wanted me to alert you if there were any changes in security status. We had cameras placed around the border crossings in Niagara, and they picked up an image of the six renegade Avian-hybrids that you had designated 'priority'. From the images we got, it appears that they are headed this way."

The scientist frowned in thought. "It is unsettling dat dey vould know vere to look for us, but it does not matter. ve vill lure dem here, as dey vould find it eventually, and den give my newest creations a trial by fire. Come. I vant you vis me at all times, as dere is much ve have to prepare."

* * *

_**Above Mississauga, Ontario, Canada**_

**MAX**

And here I was, thinking that this mission was going to be easy. After all, we hadn't seen any sign of Itex troops for a while. Erasers are dead, Flyboys obsolete, and Gobots can't reach us up here. Not to mention that the whitecoats themselves are no good in a fight.

So, no one trying to kill us? That's a plus. No one who fails to kill us and then leads us back to his or her base? A really big minus. I hate it when we are attacked, but at least with Erasers we could follow them or interrogate them.

_Hey Voice, any hints?_ No answer, which is typical.

Fang looked over at me. "This is the area where the kidnappings took place. I don't see any huge, glaringly obvious buildings that would be Itex's base in the area."

"Yeah, but I don't think that their going to try and make it easy to find them these days." Iggy said as he swooped in above us. "They _have_ been outlawed since the news got out that they were doing stuff that just _might_ be considered illegal."

"Your sarcasm is _completely_ undetectable Iggy," I sighed. "As long as we are clueless, we might as well have some fun. There is a big park down there with a river, so who wants to go swimming?" I said to everyone.

Total spoke from where he was riding a wind current, on his own wings at last. "Oh, I really need a bath, I swear, or else next time we talk about good things that happen to us, I'm going to have to cross 'not having fleas' off the list."

Well, that settles that.

* * *

Ter Borcht and the guard stood in front of a security screen. On the screen were the seven mutants that Roland hated so greatly.

"They are only two miles from our location sir."

"Release drone groups Air Delta and Ground Beta"

"Yes, sir."

* * *

**MAX**

Angel was putting on quite the show. She had found that a group of large fish were swimming in the river, and talked them into doing some tricks. First, five fish jumped three feet out of the water, and then started swimming in circles around Iggy, who noticed that something really weird was going on. Soon, there were circles of fish around everyone. Soon they all dived back under water. After about a minute of not seeing anything, I was starting to think that they had gotten tired of us and had left.

Suddenly, we saw what looked like a large wave traveling towards us. What made this wave different was that it was traveling _upstream_. When I looked closer I could see that it was completely made of fish, all of them jumping over the other in a continuous wave of motion. The wave passed right through us each fish taking great care to do nothing more then barely brush us. If I had had a net, I could have caught at least ten before they passed. Then, as suddenly as they arrived, they were gone.

Iggy was the first one to break the silence. "Now _that_ felt cool.

"That was awesome!" The Gasman exclaimed.

The rest of us just stood there with giant grins on our faces. That is, until we heard a familiar drone, a drone that only one model of robot creates.

_Flyboys!_


	8. Battle at the River

**MAX**

"Everybody duck!"

Immediately I dove behind a log that was half submerged in the river. When Iggy tells you to duck, DO IT! A split second later a huge explosion echoed above us, followed closely by a hailstorm of robot parts. Iggy had thrown the bomb into the centre of the swarm of Flyboys that had been swarming us. Now there were only fifteen of that model left, but they were being reinforced by twenty Gobots, the ground based model that the Uber-Director and Gozen had used in Antarctica.

They had chosen the perfect time to strike. With our wings waterlogged as they were, there was no way that we could fly away or take to the air in order to gain an advantage in agility. "Everyone out of the water!" I yelled as I kicked a Gobot so hard that I caved its chest in. "We can move faster on land!"

"Max!" I looked over to see Fang fighting his way towards me. "When the Flyboys swoop in, throw them into the water!"

I flashed him a grin of thanks. "Gotcha!"

The next few minutes were a mindless blur of punch, kick, dodge, and block. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Nudge using her magnetic abilities to pull a robot off its feet towards her, just before kicking it into the river. Gazzy and Iggy were throwing bombs whenever the Gobots gathered in a group of three or more, while Fang would phase in and out of sight, launching surprise attacks whenever anyone else was in danger. Angel and Total were doing their best, double-teaming any bot that came their way, but without minds to read or control, Angel's unique talents were useless in this fight.

The Gobot in front of me was proving to be a tough on. Every time I attacked, it simply blocked, waiting for the right opening while providing none for me to exploit. We continued on like this until I saw that the others had eliminated most of the enemies and were engaged in one-on-one combat like myself. My opponent saw this as well, and decided it was time to attack. It jumped back about five feet, and the Gobot's eyes started to glow red.

Sensing what was coming; I rushed forwards and rolled around behind it. Before the robot could react, I put it in a headlock, with my arms coming underneath its arms and clasping together at the back of its head. As the Gobot fired its lasers, I turned its head so that the beams cut through the robots that Fang, Angel, and Nudge were fighting. I then twisted the Gobot's head off of its neck.

Gazzy quickly finished off his Flyboy, but Iggy was having greater difficulties. The Gobot he was fighting realized that it was the last one standing, and probably calculated the score like this:

**Flock: 39. Robots: 0. Probability of survival in combat: 0%. Course of Action: Retreat.**

Quickly, the Gobot slammed his hand together in front of Iggy's face with a clang like a pair of cymbals. When Iggy was stunned by the overwhelming noise, it took the opportunity to run at top speed onto a small trail at the side of the river.

After checking to see that Iggy was all right, Fang ran off after the Gobot. I cursed how he had to go alone to track it down, but decided to spend the time checking on the rest of the Flock. "Is everybody okay?" I asked.

"My ears are still ringing, but I'm okay."

"That was a lot of robots and those last ones were really tough thanks for getting mine Max but you almost hid me with that laser and-"

I cut her off. "Yes or no Nudge."

"Yes"

"Total and I are fine"

"I'm good" (huge farting noise) "Oops."

"Come on guys," I said over the disgusted noises the others were making. "Let's follow Fang before we die of oxygen deprivation."

With that, we headed into the forest.

We caught up to Fang after about two minutes of running. He was crouched at the base of a large concrete wall with barbed wire on top. There was a pedestal with the words "Mississauga Mill Heritage site" nearby the path, which passed right between the wall and what looked like a much older stone foundation that brushed against the river. Fang waved me over to the pedestal.

"The tracks lead to this wall and then go inside a hidden door. There is no way for us to get in that way, and if we try to fly over the wall, I'm betting that someone will see us and raise the alarm. This facility is supposedly a new power mill, built on top of the remains of an old grain mill from centuries ago. I think if we blow a hole in the old foundations, we can get inside."

"Good plan." Wish I'd thought of it. "Iggy, do you have any small bombs to blow a hole in a wall _quietly_?"

He gave me an evil grin as he rummaged around in his backpack. "I think this will do," he said, handing me a half sphere about the size of my fist.

"Good. Nudge, get out the laptop. I want you to send a message to Agent Miller about where we are and that we are about to try and get inside the base. Iggy, you and Gazzer set the charge. I don't want the building falling down, as we are trying to keep a low profile here. Angel, once we are inside, tell me if you _hear_ anything. We don't want to be snuck up on and it would be good if we can free any prisoners we can find. All right, everybody ready? Then let's do this!"

_Good Max, you're on your way to being the leader the world needs._


	9. Anybody Home? It's the Hackers!

**Wahoo! Don't worry, there's more coming soon!**

**Read On ~ DE**

* * *

**MAX**

_Be careful Max. If you get in trouble, we won't be able to mount a rescue party for a couple of days, so don't get caught._

_Agent Miller_

_P.S. Next time, could you give us a little advance warning? Like more then 2 minutes?_

That was the response that we got from the FBI. Fairly obvious, but I can't fault the guy for making sure we know what we were getting into.

_BOOM!!!_

And that would be the bomb. "Darn it Iggy, I thought that it would be quiet!"

"That was quiet! Come on Gazzer; let's show her the loud one."

"NO! What part of 'low profile' do you guys not understand?" I whisper/shouted. "Gazzy, put that away and let's get moving."

Thankfully everyone got the (subtle) hint and stayed quiet as we made our way inside the mill. Iggy's bomb had blown a hole in both the outer _and_ inner walls, so we ended up in the standard, antisepticky-smelling corridors of Itex outposts almost immediately. We made it walked for about three minutes without any of us freaking out or meeting any workers/guards. Then we had a problem.

The hallway split in two.

I mad a snap decision. "Fang, you and Nudge go and look for a computer. If you see any experiments on the way, turn them loose and meet up with us later. We'll go the other way and perform our own jailbreak." I saw by the look in his eyes that he was about to argue. "Fang, Nudge can find and hack the computers with no problem, but I want you with her to provide backup. Angel can help us find any whitecoats that need to get their butt's kicked as well as the kidnapped kids." With that I let Nudge figure out which way led to the computer database using her empathic abilities and led Iggy, Gazzy, Angel, and Total down the opposite path.

Five minutes of walking later, we had found no sign of any human, robot, or mutant presence anywhere. We knew there had to be people here, _we just couldn't find them!_ Time to check on the Nudge Channel and Tall, Dark, and Handsome. _Angel, can you get anything from the others?_

_Hang on._ Two aggravating seconds later, _Fang says that they found the terminal for the MCP. I'm also starting to "hear" some voices up ahead, but they don't seem normal._

_Thanks hon._ I looked at the door that the hallway ended in front of. In big bold letters it read: "**Testing Terrarium**." Well, what do you know…

* * *

_Fang, Max wants to know how you two are doing. She is also thinking other stuff about you._

Fang looked up in surprise at hearing Angel's voice in his head. He quickly briefed Angel on what they were doing and then when back to concentrating on being invisible, trying not to distract himself by wondering what else Max had been thinking. He had found that if he actually _tried_ to disappear rather then just letting himself blend in with the shadows, he could stay invisible even while moving or standing in direct sunlight. If he diverted his attention to try and attack something, he would become visible until he regained his concentration. He was getting better though, and thought that he would be able to master his power soon.

While Fang practiced his ability, Nudge was using her empathic power to hack into _every_ file that Itex had in their databank. All of the boring stuff went into a USB drive that Fang had brought along, while more interesting articles went into a different one. As she went to select a file, she felt that the computer's last user had spent an extremely long time looking at it. Nudge called Fang over and together watched as she opened the folder.

Inside was a huge supply of other folders, and Nudge opened the first one that made sense to her: **Summery**

**Project: DSB**

**To create a well balanced fighting force combining genetics from various species and the latest in human-machine integration.**

Nudge moved to another file titled **Status Reports**

**Subject N-35: Surnia ulula**

**Subject N-36: Dasypus novemcinctus**

**Subject N-37: Gulo gulo**

**Subject N-38: Chrysops callidus**

**Subject N-39: Ursus americanus**

**Subject N-40: Puma concolor**

**Subject N-41: Falco columbarius**

Curious, Nudge opened two of the reports.

**Subject N-37: Gulo gulo**

**Subject has responded well to changes resulting from the splicing of wolverine DNA into its own. Additional Notes: There are times when N-37 becomes irrational and extremely vicious.**

**Subject N-41: Falco columbarius**

**Responded poorly to initial treatments, likely due to large differences between merlin and human DNA patterns. After five months the subject was ready for the final injection and the biomechanical augments. **

Fang looked at Nudge, whose face reflected the horror he too felt. The School had never stopped making new hybrids, and now they had created seven new monsters. Fang transferred all the data to the USB's and logged off. They had to tell Max what the computer said.

**Subjects N-35 to N-41 ready for combat and are cleared to begin their mission.**

**Mission Parameters: The destruction of a group of six human-avian hybrids.**


	10. DSB's are Operational

Fang and Nudge ran as fast as avian/humanly possible through the halls of the Itex base. They had to get to the rest of the Flock before they were attacked. They were all tough, but Fang didn't have much hope of their family holding out for long against seven hybrids that were created for the purpose of wiping out the Flock.

* * *

**N-41**

I stood at the side of the dome shaped enclosure, awaiting orders. The seven of us may as well have been frozen in place and time for all the movement we showed. We watched silently as the entrance to the dome opened and admitted four avian-human hybrids and a dog-human-avian hybrid, which walked towards us and the scientists who stood before us. I instantly recognized the hybrids from the files that we had been given to study. These were the targets that we had needed. Now all we needed was permission to engage.

* * *

**MAX**

I frowned as I walked towards a familiar white-coated figure. In front of me was Dr. ter Borcht, who I hadn't seen since the fiasco in Germany. Next to him were two more whitecoats and a man dressed in a black combat suit. Behind them were seven figures, all different sizes, and all wearing long trench coats, completely obscuring any other details about their bodies. They could have been wearing medieval armor under there and I wouldn't have been able to tell.

Ter Borcht decided to greet me before I got to close. "Stop! Dis is de end for you Max. I have finally succeeded in creating something dat vill destroy you and your pathetic flock."

"What, no 'Hello, how are you'," I asked, in pretend shock. "Didn't your mother ever tell you to be polite?

Angel grinned. "I must have knocked the manners right out of him with that steel bar."

"Enough! Your time is long overdue, and I vill not vait any longer listening to dis! D.S.B. squad; Permission to terminate: Granted!"

* * *

**N-41**

The second the words left ter Borcht's mouth I was in action. Throwing off my trench coat, I leapt into the air and unfurled my wings. I held back, waiting to see where I would be needed. N-37, the wolverine hybrid, immediately charged straight forward towards the one called Max. 37's body was extremely hairy with fur sticking out of the standard black combat suit he wore, and held a strong resemblance to the late Eraser models. He had sharp claws and teeth, and while shorter then an Eraser, he would never stop attacking his opponent, even with broken bones.

The cougar hybrid, N-40 advanced more cautiously. He slowly circled around the two younger ones and slowly forced them to back away. His golden eyes flashed as he steadily worked to move them away from the other targets. His sparring partner, N-36 worked to approach them from the opposite angle, aiming to catch them between a rock and a hard place.

N-35 and N-38, the only others in our squad capable of flight, had also taken to the air and were about to attack the tall one. Being a cross between a human and a deerfly, however, caused N-38 to create a loud buzz while he flew with his large insect wings. The blind avian hybrid was easily able to track where 38 was and went on the offensive by throwing powerful grenades towards his opponent. N-35 used this to his advantage, gliding in from behind on silent hawk owl wings. Iggy was only able to dodge due to advance warning from the short blond boy, who was having great difficulty doing damage to N-36, whose armadillo shell protected him from almost any hit.

N-39 slowly lumbered up to join 37 with the fight against Max, and I decided to fly higher, knowing that there were two more targets, ones that had yet to arrive.

* * *

**MAX**

Man this guy was tough! No matter how many times I hit him, he refused to go down! It was like fighting a guy who had both Ari's natural (or unnatural) weapons and Omega's inhuman resistance to pain. He lunged at me again, intending to sink his teeth into my side. I dodged to the side and punched him in the back of the head as hard as I could. He went to the ground with that one, and took about half a minute to get back to his feet. I used the brief respite to check on everyone else.

Angel and Gazzy were managing to hold their own against their opponents. Angel couldn't seem to be able to control their minds, but she was reading them as fast as she could in order to stay ahead of their attacks. With Angel and Total watching his back, Gazzy focused on trying to do as much damage as possible. He had found that the one with the shell was slow but was also hard to hurt with his hands, so he was saving his bombs for the times when he could roll them underneath the guy. As for Cat-boy, I didn't know for sure what the Gasman had planed, but I could think of a few ideas, none of them pretty.

Iggy however, needed backup. He had taken to the air to protect himself from the ground-walking hybrids, as well as getting some added agility to use against his airborne opponents, but two on one was kind of though. Speaking of which…

"Iggy! Bird brain at 8 o'clock!" He quickly folded his wings and dropped six feet, evading the owl mutant that was trying to tackle him to the ground.

"Thanks Max! Here, catch!" With that he threw a flat disk towards me, which I caught with one hand. Looking over the bomb, I saw that it had a simple button to push nothing else. That included info on how short the fuse was. _I think I'll just save this for later_ I thought, and put it in my pocket.

_Max, there is no time like the present._

So? I could handle one sorry beast boy without having to blow him up.

_One, true. How about two?_

O shitake mushrooms, that guy is **BIG**! When Snarly had gone down, the final member of the D.S.B. squad left on the ground, who was definitely a bear hybrid, had decided to make this a two on one fight. This guy stood at about 7 feet tall and looked like he would exceed the cargo capacity weight limit for a freight elevator. He was even hairier then the first guy, and his fist looked like it could do as much damage as Gozen's.

_Dammit Fang, where are you?_

* * *

**Yea, a fight scene! And now that I have something that I don't want people to steal: I own the Death to Snickers Bars squad! Here's a list, in case you got confused.**

**N-35: **_**Surnia ulula**_** (Northern Hawk Owl)**

**N-36: **_**Dasypus novemcinctus **_**(Nine-Banded Armadillo)**

**N-37: **_**Gulo gulo**_** (Wolverine)**

**N-38: **_**Chrysops callidus**_** (Deerfly)**

**N-39: **_**Ursus americanus**_** (Black Bear)**

**N-40: **_**Puma concolor**_** (Cougar, also known as Mountain Lion or Puma)**

**N-41: **_**Falco columbarius**_** (Merlin)**

**I also own the plot to this fanfiction. Steal it and you will have chosen the path of pain!**

**Read On ~ DE**


	11. 3, 2, 1, Knockout!

_O shitake mushrooms, that guy is __**BIG**__! When Snarly had gone down, the final member of the D.S.B. squad left on the ground, who was definitely a bear hybrid, had decided to make this a two on one fight. This guy stood at about 7 feet tall and looked like he would exceed the cargo capacity weight limit for a freight elevator. He was even hairier then the first guy and his fist looked like it could do as much damage as Gozen's._

_Dammit Fang, where are you?_

* * *

**MAX**

As if on cue, the object of my frustration appeared out of thin air, right behind the huge mutant. He immediately started to kick and punch anywhere he could reach, aiming for the oversized face. The bear hybrid swung its fist down at him in an overhead swing, which Fang dodged. The impact of the fist hitting the ground actually created a small crater in the tile and concrete floor! We both seized the opportunity to start attacking the guy, but he shrugged off the hits like we were flies.

At least I didn't break my fist when I hit him. That would have left me wide open for Snarly's strike, with the wolverine lunging in from my right. As it was I was barely able to step back and I prepared to clock him on the head again as he passed. This time however, he expected the move and pulled up short, making me fight him where he had the advantage of using his bulk and claws. I decided that I had had enough of him and flew up into the air alongside Fang, who was becoming invisible again.

_Sayonara, suckers,_ I thought, dropping Iggy's bomb down on top of two very angry mutants.

* * *

**N-41**

I watched impassively as both N-37 and N-39 were thrown back by the bomb's shockwave. The dark one's arrival had tipped the scales in our enemies' favor. I waited for the time to strike as Max and the boy landed, in order to take advantage of the momentary weakness of their opponents. I folded my wings in mid-air, dropping fifteen meters in two seconds. I landed in a crouch directly behind the one called Fang, and struck out with a quick jab to the small of his back. Max only had time to cry out before N-37 and N-39 jumped back into the fray, putting her on the defensive.

I advanced on Fang, who had fallen to the ground without a sound. As I got closer, he suddenly jumped up and kicked me in the stomach, leaving me hunched over and gasping for breath. I rolled onto my back in order to evade the punch he threw at my head. Fang stood back and watched me as I stood up and assumed a fighting stance. I waited for him to make the first move, but he just stood there, in a casual pose that you would not expect from a person engaged in a fight to the death. I had decided to advance and see how he would react when I was tackled and put in a headlock from behind.

Fang turned away to assist Max, as I struggled to shake off my attacker. I rolled forward into a somersault, pulling him/her with me. They let go of me just before they were pulled underneath me, and I spun around to identify the one who had ambushed me. It was the dark skinned girl listed in the files as Nudge. I brought up her file in my mind's eye and looked it over. All it said was that she was the fourth oldest of the targets and that she was to be terminated. I paid no attention to the lack of information and began my attack.

* * *

Ter Borcht and the other two men watched from the side of the enclosure, behind a sheet of shatter-resistant glass. All mutants on both sides were now engaged in combat, and it was starting to look like the avian hybrids were going to win, despite the obvious power of the DSB squad. The chief of security saw this and stepped out from behind the protective glass, drawing his sidearm as he did so. He saw that the greatest threat to the N's was the bomb-throwing pyromaniac, and started to move in for a clear shot.

Nudge blocked N-41's punch and dodged the follow up kick. So far she had managed to keep up with the other avian hybrid, avoiding all of his attacks but being unable to land any of her own. Her concentration on the fight was interrupted by a loud bang. Both fighters looked over to see the security guard holding a smoking pistol, and heard a cry of shock and pain from Iggy. Without thinking, Nudge threw her arm out, feeling an overriding need to stop the man from shooting Iggy again. The gun flew out of the surprised guard's hand, coming directly towards her. Nudge smiled and was about to catch the pistol when her opponent snatched it out of the air. His face was devoid of all emotion as he aimed the weapon directly at Max.

* * *

**N-41**

I aimed at Max, trying to line up a headshot on the rapidly moving target. If I missed, I could easily hit the huge bulk of N-39. I was about to squeeze the trigger when I felt a strong force trying to pull the gun away from me as it had from the guard. I tightened my grip as my aim was pulled off and the force increased. The power steadily increased until my entire body was being pulled in the direction of Nudge, who held her arm out as if she also held onto the gun. I tried to back away from her, but she gave of one final burst of power, that tore the pistol from my grasp. I cried out as a spike of pain stabbed my brain, and I blacked out.

* * *

**MAX**

When Iggy hit the ground, I knew that we had to leave soon or risk leaving one member short. I kicked the tooth-filled face of the bear hybrid away and sprinted as fast as I could for Iggy.

Fang was left by himself as I ran, and shouted to Nudge to throw him the gun, which she had somehow gotten a hold of. He immediately started to shoot at the two flying mutants, putting holes in the owl's wing and the insect's arms. Both hybrids backed away as I arrived, giving Fang a chance to give Gazzy and Angel an opportunity to do a U and A. I half-dragged, half-carried Iggy over to where Nudge and Fang were standing. Fang held the gun out in front of him, making it clear that if anyone attacked, they would get the next bullet.

The bad guy's were pretty beat up, a bit worse then we were. The wolverine-boy looked like he was going to fall over, the bear and armadillo thugs both showed signs of explosive damage, and the owl and deerfly hybrids were nursing bullet holes. The cougar man who had been fighting Gazzy had passed out, and there were green clouds of vapor still hanging around the area.

"Nudge, do you know what happened to your guy?" I asked. She shook her head in response. The bird-boy who had been fighting her had barely a mark on him, but was out cold on the ground. "Iggy, are you still with us?" He was leaning on my shoulder, and I didn't want to put him down to take a look at his wound.

His voice came, slightly forced. "Yeah."

"Where did you get hit?"

"My leg, right at the hip. It hurt's like crap, but I can fly. It'll just take a bit to get me walking again."

"Alright then. Gazzy, could you get out the _loud_ bomb?"


	12. I had the strangest dream

**???**

"What the hell hit me?"

That was the first thing out of my mouth when I woke up. I had found myself lying on the ground in a big open field, with a splitting headache. I was surrounded by a group of teenagers and kids on one side, and a bunch of people who looked like horror movie rejects on the other. Now all of them looked at me like either they hadn't expected me to speak, or like I had just become their target.

"I said 'what…the…hell…HIT ME'!" I yelled, picking myself off the ground. I had become conscious for the first time since waking up next to Mr. Psycho Doctor, found myself in the middle of a battlefield with the survivors all looking at me like I was crazy, and to top it off, I had what felt like a migraine starting. In short, I was pissed.

The kids all looked at each other as if communicating without words. "We actually don't know," the tall girl said, looking at the shorter, dark skinned girl. "Nudge, do you have any idea what you did?"

Nudge shrugged, confused. "I don't really know, I might figure it out if we have time later."

The little blond girl was staring at me, as if searching my soul for something. I considered staring back at her with my patented 'Annoy the crap out of idiots' look, but decided against it. All of the kids, including three more boys, looked pretty smart. The girl looked at the one who had spoken first. "His mind is different then before Max, then it was like them, all "kill the mutants" and stuff. Now he is just angry and thinking random stuff just like us. And for some reason it feels like I've met him before."

Huh? My _mind _is different? Mutants? I turned around and looked at the six monsters that stood in front of me. These guys fit the bill of mutant all right. Claws, teeth, armor, two even had wings! All of them looked somewhat familiar, as if I knew them from somewhere else, but I couldn't place them.

* * *

**MAX**

Fang looked at me and nodded, answering my unspoken question. This bird kid looked totally oblivious to the fact that he had been trying to kill us only two minutes earlier. We had to take him with us, for multiple reasons. A, if he was one of the kids we were looking for, we had to rescue him from the other experiments, who were looking at him like he would be a good snack. They wanted to kill him more then us for some reason. B, if he was planning on betraying us in the future or hunting us down alongside the whitecoats, I wanted to know where he was and deal with him before it happened. C, no matter whose side he was on, the FBI was going to want to ask him some questions. So that settled that.

"Okay, we all have a lot of questions for each other, but right now we have to get out of here before those guys turn us into kibble. Nudge, help Iggy blow a hole in the wall. Gazzy, lay down some covering breeze. Angry guy, I don't know what your name is, but get out of Gazzy's way unless you want to be using an oxygen tank for the rest of your life."

The guy looked startled and moved towards us, giving the Gasman a wide berth as they passed. As soon as the kid was clear, Gazzy turned around, aimed his posterior at the enemy, and let 'er rip. The bad guys immediately started to drop like flies in the face of the green cloud that moved towards them.

_**BOOOM!**_

"Door's open," Iggy called. I motioned for everyone to start moving and fell into step beside the new guy.

"Can you remember how to fly?"

"Sorry, don't have my pilot's license yet."

I laughed, "No smart aleck, with wings, like these."

His eyes were as wide as dinner plates as I unfurled my wings, and they went even wider when he checked his own back.

* * *

**???**

_I have wings!_ I couldn't believe it. It just was too crazy to wrap my head around. I stopped driving myself nuts thinking about it and looked over at the girl, Max, I think. She was looking expectantly at me with an amused grin on her face.

"I never learned how," I answered, but she shook her head.

"You were doing fine before, but you don't remember that. Don't worry; just run as fast as you can, I'll be right next to you." With that she turned to the other kids. "U and A guys! I'll look after him, you meet me at the place we talked about!" The boy dressed in black nodded, and led the others into the air. As they passed overhead, he tossed Max a small object. Soon they were out of sight beyond the treetops.

"Alright, let's run."

"N-forty-vun, halt!"

I turned along with Max to the speaker, who was running as fast as he could towards us. "Oh, Psycho Doctor, how nice to see you again. I guess you are the one responsible for the new additions to my body." I grinned despite my headache. "I'm glad you're here, now I can thank you in person."

"How! How did you break the chip? It vas supposed to remove your free vill, but now you defy me! Vhat did you do?" He yelled, his face turning beetroot red.

"I don't really care, I just know that I never want to see you again." With that, I punched him in the chest so hard that I'm sure I broke some ribs. He lay on the ground gasping for air, as I ran into the woods alongside Max.

* * *

**MAX**

Fifteen minutes later, he stopped. "I recognized this place! Follow me!" he yelled and then started running down a side trail that was covered in shrubbery, a sure sign that it hadn't been used in a long time. I followed cautiously, keeping in mind that he could still be leading me into a trap. The trail led up the side of the ravine, away from the river. He stopped in a small clearing and sat down on a log. I sat down on a tree stump across from him and examined him.

He was a bit shorter then me, although for some reason he looked older. I was fifteen right now, and tall for my age, but he looked about seventeen. Other then that, he was about standard in bird kid proportions, being thin but having enough muscle that he didn't look like a stick. His wings hung loosely out behind him, as if he didn't know what to do with them. The feathers were coloured a silvery blue/grey, with the long feathers at the bottom of the wing slightly darker. He looked tired, with long silver hair falling in front of his blue eyes. His weariness appeared to be from something mental rather then the long run we had just completed. He looked up and saw me watching him.

"This place was somewhere that my friends and I would come to get away from our lives. Now it seems that I am already as far away from my normal life I can get, eh?" he commented with a small smirk. "Your, Max, right?" I nodded. He took a deep breath and cut right to the point. "Can you tell me why I was captured, and why we have wings?

* * *

**I would like to thank my reviewers:**

**DANZNQUEEN** (First!), **Randomitis Sufferer** (Miss you), **Cap't Mo** (R u still reading this?), **White Wing Alchemist** (Love your stories, go Akiko), **22avidreader** (thank you for the compliment), **Bedelato** (Have I gotten better with the updates?), **Madeline Cullen** (Talon GH05T rocks!), **kariepaige08** (Sorry about the page upload), **StarofCalamity** (Your stories are cool)

**Thanks to all of you I am dedicated to this fic, and will not stop writing **_**ever!**_

**Read On ~ DE**

**P.S. I do have a look that can freak out idiots. It works well on my siblings as well as classmates!**


	13. Weirdo, the Birdboy

**???**

"So your telling me that you were raised in a lab, had your DNA modified so that you are 2% bird, you escaped, and you've been on the run ever since?" Max nodded. "And you also say that I was kidnapped about five months ago along with six school-mates, was part of an experiment to turn older kids into mutants, and then was placed in a group of mutants that tried to kill you an hour ago. Is that it?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

I looked at her long and hard. "You know, that's a pretty outlandish story. There are three things that make me believe you. One, it was June when I was captured, but now the trees have their late fall leaves, and yet I cannot remember a thing about the last five months other then a painful episode in an operating room, and my memories of my life before that are fewer then they should be. Two, I _do_ remember how I used to look, and my appearance has been drastically altered. And three. I don't think I even have to say what that is." At that, I looked pointedly over my shoulder. "So now that you've told me what's going on, what are we going to do?"

Max stared at me open-mouthed. "You're taking this awfully well, seeing as most people would have been screaming their heads off as soon as they woke up in the middle of the battle at the Mill."

"I'm a nerd," I said, smiling. "Every science-fiction geek on the planet wishes at some point in their life that something exciting would happen to them. I hate that it was so painful to me for them to change my DNA, but I might as well make the most of it. Really, how many people actually get a chance to live their daydreams?"

"This is real, not some stupid daydream! This is about real people, people who can die and be caught and tortured. You will never be able to go back to the way things were before, not in a million years!" Max shouted. I could see that she thought that I was belittling the troubles she and her family had gone through. She had clearly never imagined that some one might accept that they would never have a normal life again.

"Look, I'm not emotionless, I'm actually angry as hell that those (insert really bad swear word of your choice) have taken me away from my family. But for now, I'll just be logical and focus on what to do next. It makes absolutely no sense for me to get depressed, so instead of moping over what I've lost, I'm taking a look at the good things that I've gained. Plus there is always a chance I can find out who I used to be."

"You are weird."

"What was your first clue? My using common sense, or the wings?

She looked me over, obviously re-evaluating her opinion of me. "Alright then, to answer your first question, we need to meet up with the rest of the flock." She held up a small item that I recognized as a USB memory drive. "I'm willing to bet that Fang and Nudge put all the information we need on this. They were the ones who hacked the computers at the Mill, so this probably has info on who you were and what they did to you."

"Alright then. I think I remember how to get to a library, so follow me. We can use the computers there.

**MAX**

As we walked to the library, the former DSB member realized that he could remember almost all the places that he had been to, but couldn't recall who he had been there with. I also helped him figure out how to fold his wings against his back. He was wearing a black body suit from the Mill, so I let him borrow my jacket to hide his wings. My own wings were folded tight against my back under my slitted shirt.

At the library, it took a little work to convince the librarian to let us use the computer without having a Mississauga library card, but eventually she said that as long as no one else needed to use it, we were welcome to it. I took out the USB card that Fang had given me and plugged it into the slot.

We found the file with the DSB information fairly quickly, and started browsing through it. When I saw the status reports of the members, I tried to match up what hybrid name matched which mutants we fought. Most of the names were fairly easy to figure out, and so we were left with only one: N-41, the merlin, or pigeon hawk, hybrid. Looking over at the person next to me, I knew that he at least partly understood what he now was.

He took the mouse from me and started to look through every file, searching for any mention of where he lived, who his family was, and his real name. There was nothing, only mentions that N-41's family had practically turned the entire town over looking for him.

The librarian, who needed to let someone else on, kicked us off of the computer a few minutes later. As we walked back to the park we discussed what we had learned.

"What should I call you from now on?" I asked. "I don't think you want me to call you N-41, and I was considering Weirdo, but somehow I doubt that you want that to be your name for the rest of your life."

He smiled sadly at my lame joke, and thought for a minute about what I said. "The rest of my life…" he muttered. He looked up at me, having made his decision.

"Call me Merlin."


	14. I Believe I Can Fly

**Merlin**

"Look, I don't care if you are depressed right now or what. The fact is, it will take too long to get the where the rest of the Flock are waiting on foot, so you need to learn how to fly."

That was Max, being impatient with me. I just wanted to take it easy, try to figure out what I was going to do. I had been kidnapped, had almost no idea who I really was, and was now a mutant freak on the run, as Max so eloquently put it. I should think _that_ was enough to make anyone depressed.

"Hello? Earth to Merlin? How about answering me before my foot meets your nose?"

I took a good look at her; she didn't look like she was joking. "Alright, alright, relax. If it will shut you up so I can ponder what I am going to do with my life, then by all means, teach me how to fly."

"Sheesh, what happened to Mr. 'It makes no sense for me to get depressed'?"

"He found out that there is almost no way that he can be reunited with his family, who he cannot remember except for the odd memory."

She decided to change the subject after that. "On to flying. First, try to spread your wings." I pulled on my wings with my hands to feel where they were. After a minute of trying different muscles, I found the right ones and my wings spread.

Max had been watching this with a big grin on her face. "Okay, now try moving your wings as far as you can one way, then the other." I did so. "You should have some control over the way your primary feathers move, so try moving those in different directions." I tried, and it felt really weird at first. I mean, you try getting a new set of limbs and learning how to use them! I was using muscles that I hadn't had before, and had no experience using!

Well, according to Max I had flown before (while trying to kill her and her flock), but I didn't remember that. And that was the one thing I was sure that I _didn't_ want to remember.

Max let me practice my wing movements for a couple more minutes, and then led me over to the side of the ravine. We were in another clearing, this one higher up and with more open space. This side of the clearing had a clear view of the valley and river; the drop-off was almost as sheer as a cliff.

"Okay, now just relax. Remember, flying is easy; all you do is throw yourself at the ground and miss."

"That's really helpful Max, thank you for that," I responded, my voice overflowing with sarcasm.

"Fine, just keep your wings spread." she said, just before grabbing me with surprising strength and hurling me off the edge. Opening my wings as far as I could, I gasped as the air caught me. With my body catching the air, it felt like I was riding a wave at a beach on the Pacific Ocean. I was still falling, but with style, like a hang-glider.

"Remember to flap!" I heard Max call from behind me. I tried moving my wings as she had shown me, hesitantly at first, then with more powerful strokes.

As I soared above the treetops, all my depressing problems seemed to slip away on the wind, and I felt more alive then ever before.

* * *

**MAX**

I followed Merlin as he flew above the forest. He had been successful on his first try, something that none of the Flock had accomplished. Of course, Jeb and I had always let them try to let them try a running takeoff first, before resorting to the drastic measure of throwing them of a cliff. But the second method had never failed to get results, and always got people past their fear of heights. I supposed that even though he couldn't remember flying before, his subconscious mind might have instinctively known what do.

Either that or he was a really good actor.

God, I'm starting to sound like a paranoid psychoanalyst/interrogator. Maybe this guy is just what he seems to be; a poor kid who had the misfortune to get mixed up in our crazy lives and would try his best to help us out. Of course, it seemed more likely that there was something about him that would cause trouble later.

* * *

_**Itex Base The Mill**_

Roland ter Borcht woke up in a hospital bed. Looking around, he saw that there was a long surgical scar along his chest, and an IV drip was attached to his arm. The scientist that had helped him with N-41's surgery was asleep on a chair next to the door.

"Vake up!" he said, startling the sleeping man. He sat up, wincing at a sudden pain in his chest.

"Dr. ter Borcht, you're awake!" the man cried happily. "We were worried that you wouldn't survive the surgery. When N-41 punched you, some of your ribs broke and one punctured your left lung. You were on life support until a few hours ago, when your condition stabilized."

Ter Borcht lay back and sighed. "Vhat is the DSB's status?"

"All are recovering from their wounds and the aftereffects of the gas that they inhaled. They should be at full strength by this time tomorrow."

"Good. Take de hidden lower levels off lockdown and prep de cloning tanks. Begin mass production of Erasers, Version 12, and Flight drones, Version 3. Don't bodder vith da ground drones, de new Eraser is superior and less expensive."

"Already started Doctor. By the end of the month we will have an army none will be able to stand against!"

"Excellent, ve are ahead of schedule. First ve destroy de renegade hybrids, including de rouge N-41, and den ve capture de world's nuclear arsenal. Dose hybrids are de only vunes vith de information dat could be used to destroy us."

"Actually sir, we may not have to worry about that. As you predicted, our entire database was copied, save for the files regarding our future plans. I had our programmers launch a virus into the internet so that the next time a computer that is not registered to us accesses that data while online, the virus will wipe the data clean as a slate and destroy not only the computer that was using the data, but also the computers that would have received the data via e-mail or such. In effect, if they try to transfer that information in any way other then physically giving it to someone, we have nothing to worry about."

* * *

**A special word of thanks: To 22avidreader, Bedelato, for the love of Iggy, The-Winged-One, and tinker4939 for making this story a favorite.**


	15. The Annoying Sources of Help

**Today I slipped while playing soccer in gym class and sprained my ankle. So rejoice, for I will write more chapters while lying here in agony! My pain will give me a reason to be happy, in some weird way.**

* * *

**MAX**

"Now try landing. When you come into the clearing, flare your wings behind you to brake and swing your legs underneath you. Watch your speed or you'll crash." We had been flying for about half an hour now, me helping Merlin learn how to turn and teaching him the finer points of flying. Merlin nodded and swooped down, coming in a bit fast. As he placed his legs under himself his foot caught a root that was protruding from the ground, and he was sent rolling into the bushes. A moment later he was back on his feet, sporting a few new scratches. "What did I just say?" I yelled, landing next to him.

We decided to stop there for the day, seeing as I wanted to get moving and meet up with the Flock. Merlin was happy to agree, saying that he was looking forward to meeting them and wanted to do it in one piece.

"So where are we going?" Merlin asked as soon as we had taken off. It was about six o'clock, and the sky was growing darker by the minute. Perfect for staying unnoticed when going long distances. "I remember you telling the others to meet us at 'the place we talked about', but you still haven't told_ me_ where that is."

"Well, I didn't want them to get lost, so I said that if we got separated, that we would meet up at the most obvious landmark you can see from the air. I think that tall tower over there qualifies."

He looked in the direction I was pointing, and burst out laughing. "Damm Max, I thought you said that you liked keeping a low profile." When he looked over and saw my clueless expression (something that I don't wear often), he decided to explain. "That's the CN Tower, a building that until recently held the title of World's Tallest Freestanding Structure. It is 553 meters high and weighs about five times as much as the _Titanic_. It's become a symbol of Canada and Toronto, and is a huge tourist attraction."

"Meaning that there will be lots of people who will be interested to see a flock of bird-kids flying by the roof, and they will be up high enough to do so." I groaned. I hoped that the others were smart enough to stay out of sight. Then I smiled. "Five bucks says that Nudge and Angel will want to go inside."

"I don't know them but I believe you, so five bucks says you are right."

"Huh? Now we just break even, so there's no point in betting."

"If it doesn't matter just take the bet," Merlin responded, grinning widely.

"Alright, whatever floats your boat. The bets on, although I have no idea why."

_You don't need to know everything, Max_

_No, but it sure does help._

"So how do you know all that trivia? Is your memory coming back or something?"

"Something," he said, frowning. "It's like there is a database of information that pops up when I need to know something. Most of it seems to be as you said, trivia, nothing relevant to our situation."

_Hmm, sounds like my Voice_.

* * *

**Merlin**

As Max and I flew towards Toronto, I felt like I was gazing at a familiar stranger. I knew that I'd been in T.O. before, same as I knew where the library in Mississauga was. Problem was, I had no recollection of why and when I had been there, as well as who the people around at those times were. The frustrating thing was that all my memories of being in the world were crystal clear, but became blurred whenever it would shift to a conversation or who I was there with. I felt like I had become less then the person I was before my capture, like part of me had been wiped as clean as a magnetized disk

I thought back to when I had awoken at the Mill, and Psycho Doctor's last words to me. What _had_ caused the chip to malfunction? Max had seemed to think that the African-American girl, Nudge, had something to do with my extremely sore head after waking up. And what had been the deal with the little blond girl? Her words about my mind still made no sense. I was missing enough of the picture to realize that Max hadn't given me all the pieces to the puzzle.

"Max," I called tentatively. "Is there anything I should know about the rest of your flock? I'm trying to figure out why my chip broke, and I can't understand some things that you talked about at the Mill."

She looked like she was having a hard time deciding what to say. "I only gave you the abridged version of our life earlier. Another thing about us is that we all have special skills. I'll let the others share theirs with you if they want to, but I'll tell you mine. I can fly at super speed." With that, she sped off so fast that I swear that there was a small sonic boom behind her. I watched her become a speck in the distance, even with my new raptor vision, and she flew back, all in under half a minute.

"Wow."

"You look just like you did when you found out you had wings. Be careful you don't swallow a bug," Max laughed.

"How are you able to do that? There's no way that's natural in any way."

"Don't know, don't care. None of our abilities are natural, and we think that we are just mutating in new ways. Even Jeb, the whitecoat who rescued us, doesn't now for sure."

She fell silent after that, and I went back to my musings on the subject of my chip. Ter Bortch had said something about how it was supposed to blank out my memories and make me loyal to him when we were in the hospital like room. The files had also said that the DSB's had had machines integrated into them. Maybe there was more to that then just the chip and I had more in me then Max thought. What if I was leading the DSB's right to the Flock? _I doubt that Max would be very happy with me after that._

* * *

**Attention all Readers: **_**Fable II: **__**The**__** Flock Chapters**_** will now be the direct sequel of **_**Fly to the Max**_**! After that story, I am looking for somewhere else for the flock to travel to. Any suggestions for what the Crossover will be? PM me with your ideas and I will put them in a Poll on my profile. Be sure to vote for your own idea! I am also looking for ideas for new Flock powers. PM me and I' tell you what I think.**

**Read On ~ DE**


	16. Reunion

**Merlin**

It didn't take long for us to find the Flock when we arrived in Toronto. We flew higher then the Tower, (I was amazed that I could still breath this high up,) and looked down for any sign of Max's family. It was about two minutes later that we heard a cry of "Max! You're here!" As I struggled to spin on the spot in midair, I saw Max get tackled by two blond haired blurs. Coming in behind the two siblings, I saw the older boys and girl, the dark haired boy expressionless, in sharp contrast to the broad grins of the other two. Circling all of us was a small black creature that I recognized as the dog that had been with them. I hovered off to the side, not wanting to get in the way of the reunion.

Max broke away from the hugs, looking happier then I had seen before. She turned towards me and made a beckoning gesture. I flapped over, suddenly feeling shy. They were so close-knit that it seemed like they could never accept outsiders.

Everyone, this is Merlin, one of the kids who we were looking for. Merlin, this is the Flock; Fang…"

The dark one barely acknowledged his introduction.

"Iggy…"

The tall blond boy raised his hand, his eyes looking towards me but seeming somehow blank. "Yo."

"Nudge…"

"Hi, I'm Nudge, why are you named Merlin, I mean it sounds really cool but is that your real name or did you give it to yourself and"

"NUDGE!"

"Sorry!"

"Anyway, that's the Gasman or Gazzy…"

I broke in. "I know why he's called that." Gazzy just grinned, a look that made me a bit nervous as I remembered our escape from the Mill.

"And this is Angel."

The blond haired girl just stared at me as I went over the few words that she had said before. Things still didn't add up…

_Hi Merlin! Don't freak out, I'm just sending you my thoughts. I can read minds, so that's why I said your mind was different back then._

I swear I nearly fainted right then. As it was I forgot to flap for a few seconds and dropped a few feet. I caught myself and flew back up to the others, who were trying, unsuccessfully, to stop laughing. I gave Angel a mock glare. _Next time give people a little warning before you drop the 'I'm a mind reader' bomb on them _I thought at her. I saw her grin a bit more and smiled myself. Maybe they were a bit more accepting then I thought.

**

* * *

**

MAX

I smiled as the younger kids practically pounced on Merlin, asking him questions that I'm sure he barely knew how to answer. I drifted over to Fang, seeing my right-hand man watching the new guy.

"What do you think of him?" He asked as I got closer.

"Well, he's not hiding anything, nothing that he knows about anyway. The big problem is that he doesn't know much, all of his personal life and his time at the Mill are a big blank to him. He only knows what we do, or what is on that USB you gave me." I passed the USB in question back to him. "What's your impression?"

"He seems nice, but I can't trust that it isn't an act, or that Itex won't be able to take control of him again once we let out guard down. I think that letting him into the Flock will be a mistake, regardless of what Angel says about his thoughts. Don't worry, I won't leave again," he whispered, obviously guessing my fear. "He isn't Ari, and if I left, it would only make the Flock less likely to survive if he did betray us."

I nodded, accepting the caution. Only Fang would be that frank with me and it was good that he was cautious, it would be far better then just me being paranoid. I knew that Fang would be keeping an eye on Merlin, which would make all of us safer.

Merlin had just gotten around to answering Nudge's questions, probably because the others knew that if they didn't get there before her, they would never get a chance.

"I'm part merlin, or pigeon hawk, and I know that Merlin was a powerful wizard in British history, so I just thought that it would be cool to name myself that. As for my real name, I can't remember it, but I'm going to try to find it in the files you and Fang downloaded."

"Yeah, there is a lot of information on the other USB, the one Fang kept. The one with all the interesting stuff is on the one Max has though."

"That boring stuff may be just what I'm looking for."

"Hey, maybe I can help you with your search! I'm really good with computers; in fact I was the one who found the files on the project you were part of. Fang, can we borrow your laptop?" Merlin was looking slightly surprised at how fast she was talking, but didn't seem to have trouble understanding what was said.

Fang looked at me and I nodded. Nudge would be able to hack the data faster then anyone else, and would make sure Merlin stayed off of where Fang didn't want him.

"Here Nudge," Fang replied, passing her the computer. "Just don't change anything or use the blog or e-mail right now." I knew that he didn't want to take any chances with security right now.

"Thanks Fang! Hey Max, can we land and get something to eat? We haven't eaten since this morning and its dark out now. I bet that Merlin is really hungry too, he can't even remember the last time he had a meal."

"Alright Nudge, we're all hungry. Let's go down and get some take out.

It was a simple matter to find a Mickey D's in the city. For some reason, Merlin didn't need to eat as much as us, and was astounded by the amounts of food we put away. As we ate, he booted up the laptop and started looking through the data. He handed it over to Nudge as soon as she finished though, and sat beside her as she worked her magic. As he scratched his head in amazement as she moved through the data, his long silver hair parted and allowed me a clear view of the back of his neck.

There, at the base of his skull, was a thin strip of black that looked somewhat familiar.


	17. What is That?

**Merlin**

"Merlin!" I turned away from Nudge and saw Max looking at me with a fearful look on her face.

"Yeah Max?"

"Turn around; I need to see the back of your neck."

"Why, is there a giant spider on me?" I asked, cowering in pretend fear.

"Turn. Around. Now." She wasn't joking. The others were looking at us with concern (except for Fang, who had yet to make any facial expressions in front of me) and I realized that if Max was scared, it had to be serious.

I turned back towards Nudge obediently, and pulled my hair away from my neck. Max came up behind me and ran her fingers along my neck, catching on something at the base of my skull.

"What was that?"

"I don't know, it's really small. It's not what I thought it was at first though. Iggy, come over here and try and feel what this is."

I heard a shuffling as Iggy took Max's seat and felt his hand brush over the mystery object. "It's only about half an inch wide and even less tall. Made out of black plastic, with a small slot in the middle. I felt a tiny bit of something silver coloured, maybe metal."

I was about to ask how he could feel what colour something was when I felt a small intrusion in my mind that I recognized as Angel. _Iggy can feel colours with his hands. It only makes up for part of his blindness though._ Iggy was blind? I hadn't even noticed, as it didn't seem to affect him at all. _Please don't tell him I told you. When people talk about it, it makes him feel like a "lie-ability". I don't really no what that is, but he gets sad when he thinks about it._

_Angel, I won't say anything to Iggy about it. No point in calling attention to how different it makes him._

"Does anybody have two mirrors I can use to see?" I asked. I reached back and felt for the thing attached to my head. I could barely feel anything, just a raised line in my skin. I tried wiggling it to see if it would just fall off, and gasped at the sudden surge of pain.

"OW! Crap, that hurt!" Everyone looked startled at my outburst, and Nudge almost dropped the makeup mirrors she was getting out of her bag. "That thing isn't just attached to my skin; it's embedded in the bone! Thanks Nudge," I said, taking the mirrors from her. I position them so that I could see the back of my head. Iggy was right, it was tiny, but something about it seemed familiar. Then a window in my mind opened and I instantly knew what the source of my pain was.

"It's a Micro SD card slot that's probably hooked up to my nervous system, judging by how much it hurt when I moved it."

The Flock all stared at me like I had lost my mind. Nudge was the first one to speak. "How do you know that?"

"I told Max about it; I've have this virtual library in my head that gives me information when I need it. I think it must have something to do with the chip that the scientists put in me."

A new voice spoke. "So how do we know they aren't tracking you right now?" I looked at the owner of the voice: Fang

"Quite simply, we don't. That's why we need to go through that data; it's the only source of information we have on this. If I am being tracked, I want to know as soon as possible so that I don't put you guys in danger."

"Danger follows us anyways, and you're not the only one of us that could be being tracked right now. So forget any ideas about running off to protect us." Max interrupted, shooting Fang a glare. I got the impression that she didn't like to leave anyone behind.

Gazzy spoke up then. "Hey, how about we put the data on a SD card and then you put that in your head? If the card connects to your chip, then you could read the whole thing really fast!"

"That's a good idea. Do you have a SD card we can use Fang?" Nudge asked. Fang showed her where there was one already in the computer, and then copied all the files from both USB's to the card. He took the card out and passed it to Nudge, watching me carefully.

"You can put it in Nudge, just try not to pull on the slot." I said as I turned away from her. I felt a slight click inside my head as the card fit into place. A picture of a text box popped up in front of my eyes, even though I could still see my surroundings. The box asked if I wanted to open the folder. I imagined a cursor clicking "Yes" and felt a wave of information sweep my mind away from reality.

* * *

**MAX**

Almost as soon as the chip was inside his head, Merlin's eyes went blank and he fell limply to the table with a thud. I checked his pulse and sighed with relief when I found that it was still going strong.

"He's fine, just unconscious so don't worry Gazzy, I don't think your idea killed him." I smiled reassuringly at the worried nine-year old. "Angel, can you hear anything in his head?"

"Nope, its like he's not there anymore. I can't hear anything, but that might be because I can't read a electronic mind, and that is kind of what a computer chip is."

I stood up. "Well we can't stay here or having a passed out guy at our table is going to attract attention. Let's find a park or something to relax in. Iggy, help me carry Sleeping Beauty here. Nudge, you try and get more info on Itex's plans. It would be good to know what they are planning to do next, and I doubt Merlin is looking for that particular info."


	18. New Info

**Merlin**

I looked around. The McDonalds had disappeared and in its place was a small grey room. On a large business desk in the centre of the room was a modern computer, with pen, paper, and an old scroll-dial phone.

I started up the computer and opened the files, which were the same as they appeared on Fang's laptop. A small text box prompted me to look at the help files, which very informative on how to use the mind/computer interface that I was in right now. The chip in my head was hooked up to wires running through my entire body, allowing me fine control of all my senses and bodily functions. A Dr. ter Borcht, who I learned was the Psycho Doctor, and a computer programmer named Dr. Clark had designed the entire system to run off the electricity naturally produced by my brain.

After reading the help files for controlling my mindscape, I converted the small room into a study, with large bookshelves lining the walls and an armchair in the corner. I pulled a book titled "N-41: Profile" off the shelf and settled down to read.

* * *

**MAX**

"Max, I really don't feel comfortable around this guy," Fang whispered. "But you seem to be warming up to him, and we still don't know much."

I sighed. We were sitting on a bench at the small downtown park, Merlin lying next to me. Iggy and the younger kids were throwing a ball for Total, who was for once acting like a dog should.

"Look Fang, we've been over this already. We can't leave him behind even if I wanted to, which I don't. Yes, he might be being tracked right now, but so could Angel, Total, me or even you. We still haven't figured out how those Flyboys found you out west." There was probable a tracker on his laptop, but I wasn't going to say that. "Even if none of us are being tracked, I have no doubt that they would find us eventually. Plus, if I'm warming up to him, isn't that a mark in his favour? I'm still wary of Jeb, and I never fully trusted Anne, even after staying there for a few months." I purposely avoided mentioning how I had trusted Ari after travelling to the Itex headquarters in Germany. Fang seemed to know what I was thinking though, as his eyes became harder.

"I know you were right all those times Max, but remember Sue-Ann and Brian? We never had even the slightest clue that they were spies. And now we have a kid who probably has even more sophisticated circuitry inside him then they did, as well as being as dangerous as you or me!"

Angel and the Gasman heard us and came over. "Fang, I told you he's really nice and doesn't hide any of his thoughts from me. I don't think he even knows how to. If you can trust me, then you can trust him," she frowned, crossing her arms as if daring him to argue.

That's my girl.

"Yeah, he doesn't seem to look down on us at all like the Erasers and Max II did," said Gazzy, putting his two cents in.

Fang picked up on that he wasn't going to win this fight and fell silent. Iggy and Nudge came over then, carrying a load of hot dogs from a nearby street vendor, along with Total, who was already munching on his own.

"So what's the plan, Max?" Iggy asked, handing me my hot dog.

Oh yes, the non-existent plan… "I think it's time for us to give the FBI a status update; we've kept them in the dark long enough. After that lets book our plane tickets for the trip home.

I felt Merlin stir beside me as he blinked his eyes open. "Do I smell hot dogs?" He asked, sitting up. "I'm starving!"

Iggy frowned. "I thought you didn't eat as much as us."

"I don't, but even normal people get hungry after four hours of reading."

"Four hours! It's only been half an hour since you passed out, tops. And you said you were reading?"

So Merlin explained how he had found he could control the computer side of his brain and just put all his thinking there; how he had converted the files to a library; and what he had found out about the chip.

"Apparently, they _can_ trace me by my neural interface but," he added seeing the look that I gave Fang, "_But_ only if I connect to the Internet, which I can do wirelessly by the way."

"And how do we know that you aren't online right now, sending them an e-mail with exact coordinates to where we are."

* * *

**Merlin**

I sighed. This never-ending suspicion was getting annoying. I could understand being cautious, but Fang seemed like he had a personal reason not to want me around.

"Once again, you can't know for sure, but seeing as none of us have been attacked since you rescued me from the lab, I'd say that trusting me isn't the worst thing you could do right now." _Staying right on Gazzy's tail as you fly would definitely be higher on the list._

We dropped it after that, and checked into a nearby hotel. Max had wanted to sleep in the park, but it wasn't quite large enough to hide us and the younger kids all wanted to stay at a place with beds. I kept myself out of Max and Fang's way, politely listening to Nudge about how she needed to take me shopping for clothes the next day (I admit that I did need something to wear besides the black combat suit I had on), joining Angel and Total in a game of Crazy Eights (a six year old mind reader and a talking dog; and they both kicked my butt at cards), and watching curiously as Iggy and Gazzy tinkered with some small electronic device after Max and Fang had left Iggy on watch.

In the morning Nudge wasted no time in carrying out her plans. As soon as she and Angel persuaded Max to let us go (and give them a couple hundred dollars from an ATM), we were off to the mall. She practically dragged me through the stores, insisting that I try every piece of clothing that she picked out. I just let her have her fun seeing as she knew more about what kind of clothes I would need then I did. I didn't really want anything in particular, but I made sure that I voiced my opinion on everything and stopped her from buying anything that I wouldn't be caught dead wearing. I ended up getting a set of jeans, a red T-shirt, black sweatshirt and a large blue jacket that had a lot of pockets. I also picked up a backpack to put my bodysuit in along with any supplies I needed to carry.

After wandering around the mall for a few hours, we ran across Iggy and Gazzy in the EB games, with Iggy being extremely annoyed while the Gasman played on the demo PS3. I informed them that there was a store nearby that sold all kinds of electrical devices, and they were off like a shot. I laughed as I watched them go, still curious as to what they were building.

At noon, after a pig out at the food court, we all went back to the hotel to meet up with Max and Fang. They were looking frustrated, and told us how they had spent the morning getting us plane tickets to Arizona. Apparently the receptionist at the airport didn't want to let kids buy themselves tickets, so they had to have her call Max's mom, who then explained to the lady. Now we were all booked on a flight tomorrow morning, and we still had a day to spend touring Toronto.


	19. Trip to the Tower

**MAX**

"Okay people, we've got half a day to kill. Who wants to do what? I knew that if we were going to be stuck here for a couple while, it would be best if we enjoyed ourselves. I figured that Nudge and Angel would be able to come up with a few ideas on how to keep busy.

"We don't really know what there is to do here. I could search for attractions on the internet," Nudge said, looking at Fang and I.

Iggy spoke up. "Why don't we just ask Merlin? He knew where all the stores were in the mall, and if he grew up here, he should know what there is to do in Toronto." We all looked at Merlin, who was zoning out. "Merlin," Iggy called, waving a hand in front of the other's face. I will never figure out how he can do that. "Anybody home?"

"Wha? Sorry, I was light years away."

"What are the sights to see in Toronto?" I responded.

"Nicely phrased, Max."

"Shut up Iggy."

"Let's see," Merlin said, starting to count off his fingers. "It's too late in the year for a Blue Jays game, and the Leafs just played last night, so no chance there. Okay, there are some things that are open year round they are: the CN Tower, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario Science Centre, Medieval Times, The Toronto Zoo, and the Hockey Hall of Fame."

"CN Tower!" Angel and Nudge cried.

"Guys, what do you want?"

"The tower seems fine." Iggy said after consulting with Gazzy.

I looked over at Fang, and he gave a small nod.

"Okay, CN Tower it is." I smiled. Looking over at Merlin, I saw him motion that he wanted to talk to me.

"What is it?' I asked as I walked over to him. Fang saw us talking and joined us.

"CN Tower's a great place to go, but I don't think I should go with you. Before you say anything, I'll meet you wherever you want at whatever time, but I don't want to bring the DSB's down on us while we are in there. I want to do some more research as well, and I can't use my own Internet connection while I'm with you guys. So how about I go to the other side of town, find an Internet café and do my thing while you have fun."

"Sounds good to me." Fang said before I could get a word out. I shot him a glare and then focused on Merlin.

"Meet us right here at 4 o'clock. We'll stay hidden for a bit afterwards and check that you weren't followed from wherever you go online." I didn't really like this, but it seemed like it would be just as safe as dragging him around with us.

* * *

**Merlin**

Fang and I watched as Max walked away to round up the younger kids. I stared at the dark boy, starting to realize why he acted so differently around me.

"You're in love with Max, aren't you?" He stiffened as my question hit him. "That's why you don't like me much; you think I'm competition. If it were only suspicion that I would betray you, you wouldn't let me out of your sight. But here you are, supporting an idea that could result in me leading the whitecoats right to you." Fang remained silent, but I noticed a slight tightening around his jaw. "Look, between you and me, there is _no_ competition." _Now_ he looked ready to knock my block off. I smiled. "I know that she would always pick you. You're welcome to her, and from what little she told me of your adventures together, you deserve her."

Almost all trace of his former emotionless look was long gone now, replaced by an expression that mixed confusion, relief, and happiness. He started to walk away, headed towards the rest of the group who were already on their way to the large tower that dominated the skyline. He turned back and muttered one word.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." If he _did_ mention it, I would have a fiercely independent bird-girl out for my hide. I had a feeling Max did not like to be talked about as if guys could lay claim to her.

I turned around and started walking then. I kept walking for a good half hour, and then stopped in a Starbucks that offered Wi-Fi connections. I ordered a tea and delved into my brain. I had a lot to learn and plenty of time to do it in.

* * *

_**Itex Base The Mill**_

"Dr. ter Borcht!"

The man being addressed turned around. "Vhat is it?" he asked angrily

The scientist gulped, noting that he should not disturb the doctor while he was working. "We have found a computer accessing the stolen files sir."

"Did the virus destroy it?"

"No sir. The virus was only able to give us the computer's unique signal for us to follow. It seems that it is actually N-41's internal chip that is holding the data. As you know, we designed the chips so that viruses and hacker spikes have no effect."

"Do ve even know _vhy_ de brainvashing programming failed." ter Bortch practically ground out.

"We think it may have to do with the girl, Nudge. She seems to have developed a magnetic ability since you saw them in Germany. This power likely wiped the chip's memory completely blank and allowed his original memories to reassert themselves. N-41's download of the files later reinstalled the chip's firewalls and brought back the data we gave him before the battle."

"Did ve manage to get a location?"

"Yes sir, he's in downtown Toronto right now. I've already put the aerial drones on standby, they only need your confirmation to go ahead."

Ter Bortch thought for a minute. "Give dem de go ahead, and send N-35 and N-38 in as vell. Release part of de program; I vant dem able to act on deir own and taunt de hybrids." The original Erasers had had that ability, and it had served them well enough to severely hurt the Flock more then once. The DSB's were far more deadly.


	20. Who wants to be a Millionare?

**MAX**

I just want to make something clear: I am pretty hard to impress. I have flown over almost every state in the USA (I'm avoiding Alaska), seeing every landmark Nudge and Angel could drag me to on the way. I have seen hybrids of almost every animal/human you could imagine, fought many of them, including the scientific version of were-wolves. I have fought the robot replacements of those were-wolves and a super-human teenager. I have been to freaking _Antarctica_ and flown in the eye of a hurricane! So as I said, I'm difficult to impress.

But I have to say, as far as what normal humans can do, the CN tower is pretty cool. I mean, this thing has a _revolving restaurant_ on one of its upper floors! There are these glass floors on another level that make it seem like you are standing on nothing but air, and it is actually really unnerving seeing that with out feeling my wings out and pushing the air down…

God, I'm starting to sound like Nudge.

Anyway, we weren't the only ones freaked out by the apparent lack of a floor. There were several crowds of people standing just at the edge, unable to work up the courage to step on the glass. They just couldn't do it, even after watching five fat guys all jump at the same time (a sight to see), or reading the sign saying that the glass could take the weight of a rhino.

The upper floors were fun, with lots of displays and information on how the tower was built. However, getting up there was not as enjoyable. I had caught a glimpse of the elevators while we were in line to go up; they looked like black, circular canisters that you stuck eight people in and then sealed shut. I had been ready to take the stairs, but Fang and Iggy grabbed a hold of me and pulled me in. I was in the middle of a panic attack when the door slid shut and we started moving up. After less then a second, sunlight was shining in my face from where the door had just been!

No, angry robots had not ripped off the door, it was just transparent. We could see out across the city as we shot up the side of the tower. I breathed a sigh of relief as my claustrophobia settled down, choosing to ignore the small giggles coming from the rest of the Flock.

Now it was almost time for us to meet up with Merlin, and we were in the gift shop located at the base of the building. I gave everyone twenty bucks and let them get something. I grabbed a small glass model of a Canadian Loon (a type of bird, not a crazed hockey fan) for my mom and Ella. Angel and Nudge got bracelets, while Iggy and Gazzy put their money together to buy a model of the Tower that included a lighted and revolving stand. I don't know what Fang bought, he went off when I wasn't looking and refused to tell me what he had hidden in his bag.

We left soon after, and made our way back to where we had left Merlin. He had made it back before us, and was walking slowly along the street, looking in store windows or checking out the menus of restaurants. He seemed to be acting casual, but I could see him look around every so often, making sure that he knew what was going on all around him. Obviously Fang's constant caution had made it clear to him that he had better not be followed.

We waited a few minutes before coming up to him. Merlin grinned as he saw us, and beckoned us over to where he was standing.

"So, what did you think of the tower?" he asked. Instantly he was bombarded by responses, mostly from Nudge and Gazzy, on how awesome the tower was. I waited until they took a breath to speak.

"It was cool. What did you do during your research time?"

He smiled even wider. "I spent about four hours of mind-time looking up stuff about me and other experiments Itex has made. The rest I spent hacking into Itex bank accounts and transferring money into my own account."

"Wait back up. Where did you get an account, did you manage to remember yours from your old memories?" Iggy asked.

"Nope, that's still a blank. The DSB's were designed to be able to hunt runaways anywhere they hide," _Like us,_ I thought, "So ter Borcht made sure that they could pay for any supplies, shelter or bribes that they needed to. I transferred the funds by Internet banking, and I can withdraw the money using the bank card I found in the pocket of my battle suit."

Nudge's eyes grew wide. "So how much money did you take from them anyway? I bet it wasn't much, they have a lot of security on those accounts, the systems are always changing the passwords so that even I can't access them unless I found out what the new password is right after it changed."

"Oh, it wasn't much at all, just about five million."

* * *

**Merlin**

Now that look was priceless! I immediately fixed the picture of the others just standing there with their mouths slack-jawed. If this had been a manga, they would all have their mouths hitting the pavement. Even Fang was openly shocked.

Nudge of course, was the first to recover. I immediately tuned out her flood of questions and promised her that I would tell her how I did the hacking later. Max and Fang were looking mildly amused, while Iggy and Gazzy split their sides laughing at the audacity of my theft.

Max looked over at me and smirked. "How are you sure that you won't get arrested for this? If Itex had these accounts under different names, they could arrest you using the police."

Now I laughed. "Lets see, a top secret, _illegal_ company is going to report the theft of five _million_ bucks (when they would also have to explain exactly where they got that money), with the thief being a _mutant_ who does not officially _exist_, because they illegally created him in a top secret project. I can see that go over real well with the police. Not to mention that the courts would probably let me sue them for more then that five million if the story ever went public. Ter Borcht is going to try to take me down using illegal methods, because that is his only option."

"I can see that you've thought all this out."

"Nah, it just happened to make occur to me while I was doing the hacking. So now that we've got that settled, how about we go out for dinner tonight? My treat."


	21. Medieval Mutants

**I am so sorry about this. I lost my USB at school (stolen), my computer that I type on doesn't have internet, and it took me a week to get time to buy a new one. On the bright side, this is a 2000 word chapter! Read On~DE**

* * *

**Merlin**

"Please, please, _please_ tell us!"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Because it's a surprise!"

"Why can't you surprise us now?"

That would be Gazzy and Nudge. I was leading everyone to the place where I had booked us for dinner.

"It wouldn't be as good a surprise if I tell you now."

"No, it'll be better! That way we will be excited all the way there!"

As you can see, I had failed to mention exactly _where_ I was taking us, and those two just wouldn't take no for an answer. They probably would have already found out by now, but Max (who was watching with no small amount of amusement) had forbidden Angel to read my mind to find out. I wasn't sure if she would listen though, so I kept my thoughts focused on the route I was taking, rather then the destination.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, I was ready to duct tape Nudge's mouth shut. No matter how many times Max, Iggy, or I told her to stop talking, she just wouldn't stop! I was thankful that we had finally arrived at the area where we were going to eat.

"Oh, Max, look! That building says FOOD on it! Is that where we're going?"

"I don't know Nudge, ask Merlin." Max answered, grinning. _Oh so your going to sic her on me now, eh?_

"No Nudge, we are not eating there. This area is called the Exhibition, and is open during the last few weeks of summer as a large festival and amusement park," I said as we continued walking. "The FOOD building holds a huge number of fast food stores, many of which are only found in a few other locations. I would consider taking you there, but it is only open during the weeks the Ex is open. We are going to an attraction that is right next to the park, but is open year round."

"And what is this attraction?" Fang asked.

"Hallelujah, he can talk!" I cried, stalling. We weren't quite there yet.

"You're stalling," he said as the others laughed. I led us around the corner and held out my arms in a dramatic fashion.

"Behold! Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament! Tonight we will have a feast while enjoying the sight of knights competing in swordplay and jousting."

Of course this sent Nudge into a fit of squealing, and Iggy and Gazzy slapped me on the back for picking such a good place. I looked over at Max for her agreement that this was okay by her. She seemed to think it over for a second, than nodded. I turned and led the group inside.

There was a large crowd of people in the front entrance. We were fortunate to arrive when we did, because the staff had just opened the doors to allow everyone into the ticket lines and the waiting room. I went down one line and bought our tickets, paying extra for front row seats and a second serving of food (I didn't think for one second that the Flock was going to be full on what normal people would eat). After that, we entered the "Courtyard" a large room dressed up in medieval theme with suits of armour, shields and swords hung along the walls. As we entered, a man dressed in a peasant costume handed us each a paper crown. All of our crowns were gold with yellow gems, which seemed kind of redundant.

Nudge saw the horses being taken care of in their stables in a window dragged Max along across the lobby to see. Gazzy led Iggy through the crowd towards a set of rooms that held the 'Museum of Horror', while Fang walked over to the shopping area and examined the swords that were for sale. I motioned for Angel to join me as I walked to the bar to buy us drinks.

"Angel," I started, "I know you can hear thoughts and send them. Is there anything else that you can 'hear'?" I made air quotes around _hear_. I had been thinking about this in the back of my mind ever since I left the Internet café.

Angel frowned. "I don't really know, I can get strong emotions, and can tell what someone is feeling. Sometimes I can see what they see if I try hard enough."

That made sense, due to the brain being where all of your senses and emotions are linked. I smiled at her as I spoke. "That might help with what I'm thinking. You see, this dinner is like my way of saying thank you to all of you guys. You've all been pretty accepting of me, even though you only met me yesterday."

"Well we couldn't just leave you," she said smiling back. "Even if Fang has issues with you being with us."

"I'm pretty sure Fang has a lot of issues, but I think they have more to do with Max then me," I laughed. "But I'm more concerned with Iggy's issue."

"And what issue is that?" Iggy's voice came from behind me. "Is my being blind a problem for you?"

I turned to see him scowling at me with an understandably angry look. "Here me out Iggy. When I met you, I couldn't even tell you were blind; in fact, I would probably still be clueless right now if Angel hadn't filled me in on it. Knowing you are blind only increased my respect for you, seeing you navigate this city just like any normal person."

"Then what's-"

"The problem," I cut him off, "is that you about to go to a show that will only disappoint you if you can't see it."

Iggy relaxed, realizing that I hadn't meant any offence. "So what can you do to change that?"

"_I_ am only the idea maker, the one to put my plan in action is no other then…"

"Me!" Angel piped up. As I had hoped, she had seen what I needed her to do in my mind. "If I try hard enough, I should be able to send a picture of what I'm seeing to you. I just need you to try not to block me out like you usually do."

Iggy looked (or at least pointed his head) at Angel. "Do you really think you can do that Angel? Really?" It seemed he was trying hard to keep the desperate hope out of his voice.

_I can try. After all, when have I not been able to do something?_

I looked at Iggy. "You can block her? You have got to teach me how to do that."

Max walked up to us then, finally having made it away from Nudge, who was now looking at the falcons that were being displayed in a glass enclosure. "What are you guys up to?" she asked.

"If it works out, Iggy can tell you. If it doesn't, never expect us to speak of it. How are you enjoying yourself so far?" I asked, handing her a tall glass of coke.

"Other then a slight case of paranoia from the crowds, this is okay."

"I promise that if we get ambushed while we're here, I'll hold still long enough for you to beat me up before Billy kills me." I put my fist over my heart in a mock salute.

"Billy?" Iggy asked, catching my slip.

I winced. "Now he's the wolverine hybrid on the DSB squad. He used to be my evil tormentor, always trying to hurt and humiliate me. If he can remember me in the slightest, it won't be pretty."

"How can you remember him, and not the rest of your life?"

Angel answered Max for me. "Bad memories are always clearer."

I nodded. _Clearly I'm not the only one with inner demons._

* * *

**MAX**

"So where are the others?" I asked, eager to change the subject and do a head count.

"Fang's looking at swords, Gazzy's looking at the toy swords and armour sets, and Nudge…"

"Is right here!"

Merlin turned around to see her standing right behind him. "Good, all accounted for. Here is your root beer Nudge. I'll take these," he picked up two glasses of soda, "to the other guys."

"How did you know she liked root beer?"

"Of the many things she has told me, it's one of few I can put to use."

I looked to Iggy as he walked away. "What did you think of the Museum of Horror?"

"From what Gazzy said before he turned the entire _room_ into a torture device, it is filled with torture machines that makes the tests the whitecoats put us through seem tame. The whitecoats wanted to keep us healthy, for the most part. These things would disfigure you or kill you only after you had felt the most pain possible."

"Maybe we could build one and stick ter Borcht in it."

"His screams would give away our location for miles."

I sighed, "All right, lets go see what Fang and Gazzy are doing."

Fang and Merlin we found conversing by the sword counter. Fang was holding a short broadsword with a wooden handle (it's called a hilt right?) while the sword selling serf explained about the quality of the sword.

"What kind of steel is it?" I heard Merlin ask as we approached them.

"My lord, all of our swords are made only from the finest Spanish steel," the seller replied, right in his role as a poor blacksmith trying to get by.

"I mean, stainless or carbon steel."

"Stainless of course."

Merlin swore and spoke under his breath so that only the Flock could hear. "Put it back Fang, if a modern sword isn't carbon steel, it isn't battle-ready, and I don't think you are planning on hanging it on a wall. Stainless steel will break or bend after only a couple hits, so a small weapon like a set of daggers that don't come into contact with another blade would be better." Fang nodded and handed the sword back to the serf, and requested to look at the daggers kept in the glass counter.

"What cha doing?" I asked. "Finally decided to admit to the bloggers that you really are emo?" _That_ had been a topic of debate for a long time, especially since Fang had answered that girl Jess's questions.

Fang looked up at me, smirking. "No, it's just that now we aren't fighting just robots anymore. Seeing as you've forbidden us to use guns, a bladed weapon seems like a nice way to take away the advantage their claws give them."

"How would you learn to use a sword or knife?"

"It's not too hard, just stick the pointy end in the other guy," Merlin said, to everyone's great amusement. "And if we want to practice without cutting each other to bits, I think Gazzy has the right idea."

I looked, and was rewarded by the sight of Gazzy lifting a wooden sword almost as tall as himself. Five minutes later, we were all outfitted with the swords of our choice. Iggy, Gazzy Nudge, and I had all chosen the largest type of sword, Fang the smallest while Merlin got two of the medium size. Angel simply said that she didn't want a sword, and that if she wanted to try it she could borrow one of Merlin's. Merlin had also sprung for seven matching long daggers, that we each had stowed in the side pockets of our bags for easy retrieval. I especially liked his choice, because the blades were etched with the design of being a long feather.

After a few more minutes of waiting, a man in a brightly coloured costume stepped into the room. "My lords and ladies, gather round! Welcome to the tournament! Tonight we have many of you here to celebrate a memorable occasion, weather it be a birthday, a wedding…Perhaps a divorce. No matter the reason, we are happy to serve you, and hope you enjoy your meal and show. Now without further ado, please make your way to the arena!


	22. Firery Meal

**I have been really busy lately, but I am on a time limit with this story (I want to get to a certain part by Christmas), so here is another instalment of _Fly To The Max._ Sorry if the jousting isn't up to my usual standards, I just couldn't figure out how to make it sound better.  
Maybe I'll go back and change it later.~DE**

* * *

**MAX**

We walked into a new room along with everyone else. The room reminded me of the football stadium we had been to once, just a lot smaller, and without any video cameras searching the crowd for interesting people to expose, I mean, film. The long, sand filled arena took up most of the room; its wooden walls covered in weapons of several types and wooden objects that's purpose I could not figure out.

Merlin pointed to the paper crown on his head, and then to the section of the stands that were dressed in a yellow colour scheme. Catching his drift, I led the Flock towards the seats, where we sat in the front row (courtesy of the special tickets Merlin had bought).

"This is so cool!" Nudge cried.

"Yeah, this looks like it will be quite a show." Total replied. In case you're wondering why they let us bring a dog in here, the answer is quite simple: mind controlling six year old. The only reason I allowed her to do that was because it would be even worse if someone found Total and took him to the pound, or worse, heard him mouth off the first person to say, " Oh, look at the cute little dog."

Yeah, we _so_ did not want that happening.

Fang and I glared at the Scottie to shush him, then immediately checked to see if anyone had heard. Fortunately, everyone nearby was busy with his or her own problems.

Trumpeting music started to play, and we settled in to watch the show. The herald began telling us about how, after many long years, the king of this court and a neighbouring land were trying to establish a peace between their kingdoms. Our king had sent his son to the other land as an ambassador with the treaty. But his journey was interrupted by an ambush.

We watched as the prince was captured in a swordfight, and dragged away by a hooded knight and his henchmen. The scene shifted, and we saw the king and princess take the thrown. The herald called the five knights of the realm into the stadium with outrageously complementary introductions. Then he called the green knight in with a speech that had words that could be taken as polite, but the tone of his voice was disapproving. Obviously the green knight was the villain of the story.

After the parade of knights saluting the king, we were shown a display of horsemanship with trainers making some very large horses perform a variety of moves that were demonstrations of what a horse would do in combat.

The arena was emptied after a few minutes of this, and a woman dressed in a yellow tunic approached us. "Good evening, I am Nicky, and I will be your wench for the night. Your food will be along shortly, so would you like anything to drink?" After taking down our orders and ignoring Iggy's request for a martini, she asked, "Will there be anything else?"

Merlin handed her a printed receipt with some handwriting on the bottom. Nicky's eyebrows went up all the way into her hair. "Two orders each? That's a lot of food sir, I can't even finish one serving."

"I've already paid for them, and I was assured the cook was told to put aside the plates for our order. Just bring the food, and quickly please. Any longer and these kids will eat one of the horses."

Nicky looked startled, but hurried off do our bidding. All over the stadium, waiters went off to do the same. The herald announced that we would now be given a demonstration of the "sport of kings", falconry. At this, I shared a knowing look with the Flock, minus Merlin, who had no idea of our adventures with the hawks of Death Valley.

"Total, don't say_ anything_. That bird might think you look a bit tastier then the lure it's supposed to return to."

* * *

Merlin

I watched carefully as the falcon flew over our heads. This bird was an incarnation of the attributes of speed and agility, fused together with grace. I knew that when I flew, I likely looked like a chicken that had jumped off the roof of the barn. This falcon would probably be one of the best teachers that I would ever have the opportunity to observe.

After the falconry demonstration, our food arrived. Nicky had brought along another server to carry all our food. "Here you go, one baby dragon, a dragon claw, dragon blood, and a dragon egg for everybody. Your second servings will be here in a minute, and then there will be a dessert of two dragon hearts each."

There was silence among the Flock for a full minute before Nudge spoke. "We're eating _what?_"

"The menu says it's half a chicken, a rib, tomato soup, and a baked potato." I could barely get the words out, I was laughing so hard. They all looked like they expected the food to jump up and breath fire. "The dessert is supposed to be a kind of pastry."

"Oh. Well in that case, let's eat!"

As we ate, I looked over at Iggy, who was sitting next to me. "So, how are you enjoying the show?"

"It's the best thing I've seen in a _very_ long time."

"What!" Max asked, nearly choking on her 'Dragon Claw'. "Is this what you guy's were keeping secret? You can see now Iggy?"

"Sadly, no. What I can do is get Angel to show me a mental image of whatever she sees. Only works if she concentrates, and I see everything from her point of view. It's no good for when I'm on my own or in a fight."

"On the plus side, now Iggy can enjoy tourist attractions just like the rest of us," I added.

"I wish you had figured this out before we went to the tower."

"Sorry Iggy, I needed time to think about how it would work."

The show started up again after that, and the rest of the night past quickly. The tournament started with the knights competing to see who could thread their lances through small hoops while riding on horseback. The yellow knight and the green knight tied, and all of the horsemen were given small flowers by the princess. The knights then proceeded to throw the flowers to women and girls in their sections of the stands. Fang, Iggy, and Max all pointed at Nudge, when the yellow knight came over to us, as she was squealing and bouncing up and down on her seat. The knight got the picture, and made sure one of the flowers flew into Nudge's hands.

After the competition, the field was immediately prepared for the main event, the tournament's combat. Pages hurried onto the field and set up a railing down the centre, creating lanes for the jousting to take place in. The red knight and the red and yellow knights were the first to face each other. They charged at each other with lances and shields held at the ready. With a splintering crash, lance met shield, and the red knight was thrown of his horse. R&Y traded his broken lance for a sword given to him by a page, and proceeded to charge down the fallen knight. Red raised his shield at the last moment to protect himself from the descending sword, but lost the shield in the impact. Taking a longsword from the wall, Red chased down his opponent and pulled him off of the horse as the rider attempted to make a turn. The sword fight that followed was brief, with the red knight disarming R&Y and making a dramatic slash that looked like it had cut his opponent open. The defeated warrior was dragged off of the field, and the red went on to fight in the next round against the green. After a slightly longer fight, the bad guy won by hitting Red in the back with a long halberd after swinging the poleaxe 360 degrees. Green wanted to continue, but the king ordered him to leave the ring so that the other three knights could face each other and determine who would face the green knight for the championship.

After several more rounds, the yellow knight emerged victorious over both the blue knight and the black and white knight, and faced the crowd as we cheered for him. While his back was turned, the green knight charged out of the backstage area atop his horse and slashed Yellow in the back. Green then started his speech in defiance of the king and how he would take control of the land and make it a province of his own kingdom. To prove his superiority, he had the captured prince dragged in, who was supposed to be the greatest warrior of the realm. During his monologue, Yellow crawled unnoticed to his sword and freed the prince, who then fought alongside the yellow against Green and his guards. After a climatic battle in which the prince wielded two swords, Green was defeated and Yellow was named the champion of the tournament.

With that, the show was over, and everyone filed back into the lobby. The knights were all there (Green had large manacles on), and they were handing out autographs. Nudge ran over to our champion to get his signature and talk about his performance, like how it looked so real when he had been hit in the back. It took some time for us to drag her away from him, and even longer to get out to the empty street and on our way back to the hotel.

As we walked through the Ex, I noticed that the streets weren't quite as empty as I thought. A ways behind us, I saw a bunch of people exit the FOOD building. Thanks to my improved vision, I could see that they were all really good-looking guys.

"That's weird, I didn't know the FOOD building hosted conventions," I said to Max.

"What do you mean?"

"Well there must have been a gathering of some kind, seeing all of those guys who just came out of it. Maybe there was a photo shoot; they do look a bit like male models."


	23. Moving on

**The Mill**

The security officer looked over his shoulder at the young scientist, Dr. Clark. Seeing the data on the screen, Clark quickly went off to find his boss. After hours of searching, the trackers had found them. The whitecoat truly believed that the mutants would be dead soon.

* * *

**MAX**

I struggled to hold the partially morphed Eraser to the ground. Here I had been, enjoying a nice evening with my family and then these dimwits have to show up like a blast from the past to ruin my day.

The only good news was that these Erasers were very sloppy. We had been able to take all of them down in two minutes, an effort that usually ended up in us taking some serious damage. I had only one scratch from where a lucky hit caught the side of my face, and the others had fared no worse. Now I wanted some answers as to how they found us.

Fang held his new dagger to the struggling wolf's throat, which immediately stopped moving. "Morph back to human." Fang growled, doing his own wolf impression. I waited until the transformation was complete before asking my questions.

"How did you find us?"

"The bosses told us you would be in the city, I don't know how they knew. They told us to comb the streets until we found your scent, which is really quite distinctive, like all hybrids. We picked up your scent, and followed it in the direction that smelled freshest. When we got here, we decided to set up an ambush."

Merlin laughed. "If that was your idea of an ambush, you're worse then I thought."

A cruel voice interrupted him. "Actually, it worked extremely well."

I looked around. We were now surrounded by a group of ten robots. This model looked like your standard army-style tank; lots of bulky parts with rectangular shapes making up all of the limbs and body. The head looked like the cameras used by professional photographers, with a long lens like eye. These were obviously your run-of-The-Mill type robots, designed for mass production.

The owner of the voice, a tall and bulky guy wearing a combat suit like Merlin's, spoke again. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am N-35, member of the DSB squad, and a hawk owl hybrid." At N-35's feet lay Iggy, knocked out cold, which explained how we had been snuck up on. Iggy had had no chance to warn us of a silent enemy's approach, and Angel had been focusing on the downed Eraser rather then keeping mental watch.

A loud buzzing noise announced the arrival of the deerfly hybrid.

"And this is my partner in your destruction, N-38. He will be quite happy to drain your body's of their fluids."

I looked over the new arrival; his face was a monstrosity with an insect's mouth on a normal guy's face. I did not want him coming anywhere near us.

"Joey, you always did like to hear yourself talk. It's almost appropriate that you speak for two people now." Merlin was clearly disgusted by N-38, but somehow managed to come up with a smart remark to throw at "Joey." _Hey, that's supposed to be my job._

"Quiet traitor, you will be the first to die. You are the one with the data that we need, and we have clear instructions that your head is to be in one piece."

_Max, Merlin has an idea. Can you move super fast and get Joey away from Iggy? We'll take out the robots._

_Got it sweetie._

"I may be the first to die, but I'd prefer that to looking like your friend there," Merlin continued.

N-38 stepped forward, his mandibles opened menacingly. Joey quickly put an arm out to stop the deerfly's advance. "Hold! We need to be careful with him, the doctors want him mostly undamaged."

I charged forward into the opening the raised arm gave me. In a flash I was in front of the two DSB's and had knocked them both to the ground with hard punches. A second after that, five silver knives flew though the air and found five targets in the eyes of the robots. With out their visual cues, half of the robots just stood there while the Flock flew into action against the other half. The remaining 'bots were quickly disabled when wooden swords, bought as souvenirs, were swung with all the force a bunch of bird-kids could muster. In case you don't know, that's a lot. The robots were left with smashed legs and eyes, putting them out of business.

A little while later we were in the air, headed towards Arizona. "You know, that was unusually easy," I commented to Fang when he drifted towards me.

"Yeah, makes me wonder what they will throw at us next. The news in Toronto will be interesting tomorrow. I hope the police will be able to handle taking two mutants into custody and then having to investigate The Mill"

"Yeah, that was classic, leaving them tied up at the station with a note of the location of their secret base."

He was silent for a couple of minutes (no surprise), and then said, "I'm sorry."

Now that was a surprise. "For what?"

"For doubting you. You were right about Merlin, who seems to be fitting in nicely with the others."

I laughed. "Make sure you keep on telling me when you think I'm being stupid though. Sooner or later, I'm going to make a big mistake."

"Don't worry, I'll always have your back."

We flew towards home, our wingtips almost touching.

* * *

_**ONE MONTH LATER**_

**Merlin**

An extremely annoying FBI agent was sitting across from me. I was in a room that could be described as the classic interrogation chamber. One-way glass, white walls, black table and chairs, it definitely fit the bill. It just like the ones from the CSI of NCIS shows!

I'm sure you could guess that I didn't want to be here. It wasn't that I didn't want to give the FBI the information that only I could give them; hell, I was all for anything that would help stop ter Borcht.

What I didn't like was that I had to tell them again. It was a month after the Flock had led me to Arizona, but the damn agents just wouldn't stop asking questions. Every few days, it would be back to the room to answer questions, each time with a different agent. They would badger me about the slightest differences in my story, whether it is about what the Flock ordered for lunch or how I had used the chip in my head.

I gave the agent in front of me my look, and of course he got annoyed in two seconds. I had told him that I wouldn't say anything more until it was Agent Miller or Agent Cook in front of me. Those two were the only ones I had met with any people skills.

Eventually he got tired of waiting and left the room. The idea behind this was that if they left me alone long enough, I would get bored and tell them what they needed to know just so that I could leave. I had conveniently avoided mentioning that I could just enter my mindscape when they did that, and could have fun with virtual training, or studying the files that I still had. I had even downloaded a bunch of games and e-books, and I was having a lot of fun at the moment playing Halo 2: PC in my head. Somehow, my brain managed to make it seem like I really was the Master Chief, instead of just looking at a screen in my head.

I had just started the level where the Chief is teleported into the Covenant city High Charity when Agent Miller opened the door. Opening my eyes, I looked at him. "Finally. I was getting kind of tired thinking up insulting nicknames for your co-workers."

"Alright Merlin, just remember, those guys are still watching us, and they could vote to leave you in here for another day or two."

"Well now that you're here, we can put my idea to good use. I am really tired of this twenty questions game, especially when none of you guys answer. How about we just download the entire database in my head, including my memories of my time at the mill and with the flock, onto a laptop?"

"Last time we tried that, it fried the laptop after two minutes."

"I think that's because you tried to have me do it wirelessly. Ter Borcht likely had someone make a virus that will kill any computer that tries to send that data online. I want you to get a laptop that is completely free of data and is not hooked up to any server, and use a SD/USB connection cord to just pull up the data from my own chip."

Miller looked at me seriously. "A data yank could be very dangerous for you. We could end up taking everything that makes you you."

"Yeah, that's probably how I lost my memories of people in my life the first time. But the DSB's chips were designed with data yanks in mind, and I'll be making my own copies of the data. I keep a copy, you get another copy. You'll be able to see how much data is in each set, so you'll know I'm not keeping anything from you."

"If this works, you'll be free to go, and we'll only call you back for a completely unrelated incident."

"Since that's on record, and I think I can trust you, let's do it."


	24. Getting Away by Going Back

**One Week til Christmas!**

* * *

**Merlin**

I got back to Dr. Martinez's house late that night to find a dangerous swarm crowding the front yard. It wasn't a swarm of the male model people (Max said they were called Erasers), or any new type of robot. It wasn't even a couple members of the DSB squad. No this time it was something that I had found over the last month to be more annoying then all of them.

Reporters.

I started to push my way through to the front door, but that soon proved to be a futile attempt. As soon as I would move one microphone out of my face, two more reporters would notice and attempt to cut me off. Twenty questions flew into my face, my enhanced hearing making my head ache.

"How do you know Max and her flock?"

"Are you a member of the group? When did you join?"

"What is your name?"

"Is it true that Fang is trying to recruit teenagers worldwide to overthrow their governments and help the flock become rulers of the world?"

_What?_ That was a new one. I made a mental note to check what Fang had been writing recently.

This was all a result of taking only a few steps into the yard. Seeing that there was no way to get through without breaking a few bones, I turned around and ran around the side of the house. A few of the reporters tried to follow me, but I had gained a large lead before I even turned the corner. Before they were able to see me again, I jumped in a ground floor window.

"Incoming!" I called as I leapt. Max's mom had converted her office into a bedroom where the guys could sleep; I didn't want to land on anyone who had gone to bed early.

Iggy was sitting at Dr. Martinez's desk with a jumble of wires and things that looked like they once belonged in a toaster, which was a sure sign that a now bomb was in production. The first time I had seen Iggy make a bomb (and had realized that was what it was), I had wanted to know how he created them with so few materials. Unfortunately, I had made the mistake of voicing my request within earshot of Max. She had promptly forbid both Gazzy and Iggy from showing how they did their magic, saying that they had enough trouble-making pyromaniacs in the family.

I came up behind him, knowing that he was aware of my movement. "So, how big will this one be?" I asked.

"Lethal damage to the person it ends up attached to, maybe wounding another if they are right next to each other," he answered, keeping his focus on his work. I couldn't blame him for that. "What I'm trying to figure out is an easy way of making it stick to someone if I throw it."

"Try making a pear shape and wrapping the fat end in duck tape; it might limit the blast radius but that will stick to pretty much anything." I heard a rustling over by the window. "Excuse me for a second."

Two cameras popped up over the ledge, the two reporters I had left behind finally having figured out where I had gone. I quickly put my hands over the lenses as I moved to stand in front of them. I looked down at them, a satisfied smirk on my face. "If I ever see any pictures of the inside of this house in _any_ newspaper or magazine, I will sue you for invasion of privacy. And trust me, I can afford a good lawyer."

* * *

**MAX**

I peaked out the window at the horde of people crowding the lawn. I knew they would go way eventually, but I wanted them gone _now_. I looked over at Mom, who was sitting on the couch beside me, calmly reading a book. I envied her for how calm she was.

"Sorry about this Mom. I had no idea that this would happen."

She looked up at me, a small smile apparent. "You're not to blame Max, all those people outside just can't find anything worthwhile to do with their own lives. They need something interesting to talk about in order to try and convince themselves that they have something to do with important events."

"But why do they have to come and bother us? I'm sure that there are more interesting things to report on." Plus, it was making our current location extremely obvious to Itex, which was bad news, as we had had no word of ter Borcht being captured yet.

"Max, you spoke in front of Congress not long ago, Fang has a blog where there are kids willing to die in order to help protect you, and the flock is a group of avian-hybrids that until recently, weren't even considered to exist." Mom looked a little sad as she said that last part. "Frankly, there isn't much more interesting then that.

"They aren't getting anything out of us though," Merlin said as he walked in. "I just sent two reporters packing, with instructions to tell everyone to get away from the house in ten minutes, or else I would force them to leave."

I raised an eyebrow. "And what will happen if they deicide not to leave?"

"I'm sure we can think of something." Merlin grinned wickedly. "By the way, where's Fang?" He said as he sat down on a large armchair.

"Get off!" Fang yelled from underneath Merlin, having appeared out of nowhere. Finally, someone had turned his annoying invisibility against him.

"Sorry Fang, didn't see you there…or was that the point?"

Fang just grumbled and readjusted himself.

"Anyway, when I tried coming up the walk, I was asked if you were trying to get kids to take over the world for you. What exactly have you been writing?"

"Fang, I'm shocked!" I said, smiling. "How could you not include me in this grand scheme of yours."

He gave his trademark smirk. "I was planning to give you control over the world as your Christmas present, but now the surprise has been ruined.

That's right; Christmas was coming up, in only a couple of weeks too. "So seriously, what are our plans for Christmas?" I asked. This would be the first time we would have a proper Christmas since Jeb had 'died' back when we were at the mountain house. Every other year hadn't worked out so well with my inability at the time to buy proper gifts and decorations.

My mom spoke up. "I recommend getting away from this rabble." She pointed her thumb over her shoulder at the window.

"Good idea, but where would we go?" Fang asked.

We thought for a moment. "How about we go back to Canada?" Merlin offered. "There will be snow on the ground by now, and I know of some cottage country where we would be the only ones around for miles."

I thought for a minute, and then glanced at Fang to gauge his reaction. He was already looking at me and he nodded his head to say he agreed.

"Mom?" I asked.

She thought it over for a minute longer then me. "I think that is a pretty good idea. We'll need to arrange transport, for Ella and me at least, and we will need a large cottage on short notice. I hope there will be someone we can persuade to let us stay there."

"Nudge will be able to find us a place, and Merlin has enough cash to do the 'persuasion,' right?" Fang said.

"I figure that we can rent for cheaper amounts, or I could just buy the place for a larger sum. Make sure Nudge looks for ones that are already for sale or rent. A person who doesn't want to sell is much more expensive."

"Wow, five million in the bank and he's acting stingy." I remarked. Merlin shot me the bird then let it slide.

"Well," My mom said. "I guess we had better ask the others what they think."

I had a feeling I knew what their reaction would be.


	25. Christmas

_**December 24  
Christmas Eve**_

**MAX**

_I shook the bell. It made the most beautiful sound my sister and I had ever heard._

_But my mother said, "Oh, that's too bad."_

"_Yes," said my father, "it's broken."_

_When I had shaken the bell, my parents had not heard a sound_

_At one time most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me as it does for all who truly believe._

Mom closed _The Polar Express_ with a slight sigh. "And now," she said, "it's time for all of you younger ones to go to sleep. I know that you will be up very early tomorrow. Don't open up _any_ presents until everyone is awake. Got it?" A chorus of positive responses answered her. "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite."

Mom led Fang, Iggy, Merlin and I away from the bedrooms, where we could hear Nudge squealing about how she hated the idea of bedbugs to Ella and Angel. Lucky Gazzy got to sleep in a room reserved for him and Iggy.

We went downstairs and sat in front of the fire in the cottage's large fireplace. Fang and Merlin had managed to find a really great place for us to stay. They had picked out a two-story house on a small, private bay, where ours was the only building in sight for a mile. I wasn't sure, but I was hoping that this would turn into a place where we could actually be safe from the world. Kinda like that deserted island that the Flock had wanted to run away to a little while ago. Being here, I could understand the attraction that the idea held.

Mom poured us some hot chocolate. "Does everybody have their presents wrapped and under the tree?"

"Gazzy and I do," Iggy said.

"Angel, Nudge and I are good." I made sure the girls had taken care of anything, and Nudge had _insisted_ that she help me wrap my presents. Both Merlin and Fang nodded their confirmation.

"Well that's taken care of then." Mom sat down in a large armchair.

Merlin lowered his glass, a large foam moustache underneath his nose. "Are there any presents from 'Santa'?" He asked, making air quotes.

"What with the trip up here and making everything safe, I just couldn't find the time to do any extra shopping."

"Eh, maybe Santa is real, and he will deliver to the younger kids if they still believe in him."

"Do you still believe in him Merlin?" I asked.

"No, but I didn't believe there was such thing as winged people or werewolves either. I'm just saying that anything is possible, even magic, as there is nothing to prove it isn't real."

"It would be nice if magic was real," Iggy said wistfully. I had a feeling I knew what he was thinking about.

"We can always hope Iggy." I said. I got up from my spot next to Fang. "C'mon, we should get to bed."

Fang and Iggy cleaned up for Mom, and then we walked upstairs. I saw Gazzy hiding in a corner near the stairs. "Come here kiddo, why are you still out of bed?"

"I couldn't sleep," He said, "I'm to excited to sleep."

I crossed my arms. "And what do you want me to do about it?"

"Could you sing me a song? It might help if I have a tune to think about." He asked, sitting down on his bed.

_Hmm._ I really couldn't remember any songs that would be good lullabies. It had been a long time since any of the Flock had needed help falling asleep.

Merlin sat down next to him. "Get under those covers and I'll sing you a song I know. He doesn't sing in his sleep, does he?" He asked Iggy. When Iggy told him it was safe and that he wouldn't create a monster, Merlin began to sing.

_Old toy trains, little toy tracks,  
Little toy drums, coming from a sack,  
Carried by a man, dressed in white and red,  
Little boy, don't you think it's time you were in bed_

_Close your eyes,  
Listen to the skies.  
All is calm, all is well  
Soon you'll hear Chris Cringle and the jingle bells  
__Bringing..._

_Old toy trains, little toy tracks,  
Little toy drums, coming from a sack,  
Carried by a man dressed in white and red,  
Little boy, don't you think it's time you were in bed._

He finished the song by fading out the last lines, and Gazzy happily closed his eyes and drifted of into the land of candy canes and sugarplums.

Merlin quietly got off the bed and started to walk towards the room he and Fang were sharing. I caught his arm as he passed. "You never mentioned that you were good at singing."

He laughed quietly. "I'm not really that good."

I shook my head at his denial and stepped into my room, falling asleep as soon as I hit the covers.

* * *

_**December 25  
Christmas Day**_

**Merlin**

I was awakened by a loud screech. As I groggily wondered what could have made such an unholy noise, my question was answered by a stampede. Leading the charge was the two blond haired siblings, and their little dog too. They were being followed by our fearless leader, her hair flying behind her as she chased the three troublemakers. I dragged myself downstairs and sat in a chair next to the large Christmas tree. Iggy came down as well, grinning widely.

"What happened?" I asked.

"They had Total lick Max on the face to get her awake. Then Gazzy laughed so hard at seeing her shoot out of bed that he let one of his surprises slip."

"How long will it take for her to calm down?" I had never seen Max go this crazy during my time with the flock.

"She should calm down as soon as she catches one of them."

"Lucky them."

About half and hour later, we were all seated in front of the tree, opening presents as Dr. Martinez handed them out. I had received an adaptor so that I could plug my self into any kind of computer from Nudge, an iPod from Max and a travelling poker set from Angel, and that was only the beginning.

"Cool, a new Hot Wheels set! Thanks Max!"

"Your welcome Gazzy, and thanks for the gas mask, I could have used that earlier."

I watched as Max opened my gift to her, a pair of combat boots with a hidden knife. With the new denim jacket (complete with wing slits) she received from Nudge, she almost had a new outfit. Fang was helping everyone cut away the unwanted packaging with his new Swiss army knife and Iggy was quite happy with his colour-coded micro-screwdriver kit.

Later, Iggy and I made pancakes for everyone (I was really glad I had hired a truck to stock the pantry), and then we went outside to play in the fresh snow of the Rocky Mountains for a while. We had lots of snowball fights, which often included bombing runs on each other's snow forts. After several hours we went back inside, leaving behind some very realistic snow angels. The rest of the day was spent getting ready for dinner, with everyone pitching in to help make some part.

Soon the giant turkey was ready, and we all dug in. Despite the large amounts of food, the meal passed quickly, and we went back to trying out our new gifts. Ella went over to the tree where she had stashed her presents and brushed her hand against a branch as she did. A small, silver bell fell out of the tree and landed in Nudge's magnetic hand.

Attached to the bell was a small box, with a tag addressing it to _The Flock._ Nudge opened the box and pulled out a large, 100 GB USB memory card! Looking surprised, she handed it to Fang, who plugged it into his laptop. His eyes widened at what he saw on the screen.

"Everyone, you might want to look at this." We crowded around as he read the text.

"_Dear Flock,_

_My apologies for never giving this to you earlier, but the time was not yet right. These files contain information on everything Itex ever did. Use it well, and Merry Christmas._

_~Mr. C"_

Max was flabbergasted. She looked at Fang, her mom, and myself in a wordless question that we all shook our heads at. None of us knew where the gift had come from. Nudge immediately began searching through the files for interesting information, but there were so many files it seemed an exercise in futility. Soon she gave up, but not before concluding that the files had defiantly come from an Itex computer.

Putting the gift out of our minds for now, Nudge and I tried hooking up her new iPod to my chip in order to access all the songs I had saved. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Fang call Max outside to the porch. I called to Angel in my mind, knowing what would happen. Fang spoke softly to Max, and then brought out a small box; his Christmas present to her. She opened it and drew out the gift; a small necklace, with the outline of a heart created by two joined feathers. Fang waited, looking nervous as Max stared at the pendant. After almost ten seconds of this frozen scene, Fang dared to ask if she liked it. She answered in one of the most obvious ways possible which was her kissing him full on the mouth. After a second she realized that the whole family could see her (Iggy included thanks to Angel), she broke away, a blush coming to her face that everybody knew wasn't from the cold.

I turned to the others, waved my hands like a conductors baton, and we all burst out in song:

_Max, the red-faced bird-kid,  
Had a very de-ep blush.  
You should have seen it,  
Melt all the snow to slush._

_All of the other bird-kids,  
Laughed and made catcalls,  
Then they ran of screaming,  
As Max chased them through the halls._

Which proved to be a very accurate prediction indeed.

* * *

**My apologies that this is so late, but I've just haven't really wanted to update. Probably because it means I am getting closer to the end of this story. I'm not the only one late with a Christmas Special (coughAkikocough), so don't start complaining. I would also like to announce that this story probably only has about five more chapters left in it. It's okay if you complain about that though. It's nice to know you care enough that you want me to continue.**

**Read On~DE**


	26. 100 GB of Data means Massive Headaches

**I'm Baack! I know I've stopped updating recently, but I lost my USB (for the second time!). Now I've got a new laptop, so I can actually get the writing done sooner.**

_**About time too!**_

**Huh? Who said that?**

**(Pop) Merlin: I did! I'm tired of being shunted to the side like a unwanted pizza crust.**

**DE: Hey, I always eat my crusts! And how did you get here anyway?**

**Merlin: Akiko's OC's can get around her stuff, why couldn't I get into yours?**

**DE: So who are you going to act like? White Wing, Neofreak, Shadows? **

**Merlin: I'm not like any of them. I'm not going to have stuff dropped on me like White Wing, and both you and me think disclaimers are stupid. One is enough, and this story's is in the summary.**

**DE: So you're just here for the ride?**

**Merlin (Draws out two swords): Well, if you don't update more often, I might decide to kill you like Neofreak threatens Akiko**

**DE: How will you do that? I know I didn't give you the skill to jump out of my computer.**

**Merlin: But you did give me the ability to hack any computer, and****I will slice up your plot for your massive crossover series staring the great Dygen Entreri.**

**DE: I'M TYPING AS FAST AS I CAN!! **

* * *

_**Subterranean, Newly Relocated Itexicon Base**_

Dr. Clark ran through the halls towards Dr. ter Borcht's lab. Remembering what had occurred the last time he had interrupted the biologist, he made sure to knock before he quietly opened the door and stuck his head inside.

"Sir, I have some news. May I come in?"

"Come in. I vas just finishing." Ter Borcht was bent over the unconscious body of N-37, and put the last stitches into the back of the hybrid's head. "Now, vhat is dis news you have?"

"Our undercover operatives have managed to retrieve N-35 and N-38 from custody, and have erased all data of their existence from the Canadian government's records."

"Good. It is fortunate dat dey did not release all de data pertaining to dem for fear of starting a panic."

Clark nodded. "I have some other information as well, but it will be better if I show you." They walked through the halls together, passing many rooms containing large glass tanks. In each tank was an Eraser, all clones going through various stages of development, all potentially deadly solders for Itexicon's plans. A hundred of these creatures were already full grown, with the ability to morph between fully human and fully wolverine at any time, or stop the transformation at any point.

Eventually the scientists reached the control room, and Clark brought up an image of the Earth, which zoomed in on the FBI headquarters in Washington DC. "Using a remote hacking spike that I manually controlled, I found several ways to get my virus inside the FBI's main network. You would be surprised at how easy it is to use a charging Blackberry or iPhone as a modem. Right now I have the virus monitoring their systems for any sign of our missing data. It actually managed to destroy a computer that was in the process of receiving the files. Unfortunately, the sender was N-41, so we were unable to destroy those copies. I suspect that they have transferred the files manually by now, and as the virus has yet to find another copy of the files, I think they are keeping the computer with the files completely disconnected from their server.

"So our main problems are still destroying N-41 physically in order to eliminate his copies, and finding a vay to get de data out of da FBI's hands," ter Borcht stated.

"Exactly. I'm confident that someone in the FBI will make a mistake soon and allow my virus access to their secret files, but destroying those copies will do no good if N-41 replace the data just as easily. The location of out little runaway is what I have devoted most of my time to, and I believe that I have found him." The screen shifted to show all of North America, and a glowing dot appeared in Arizona. "I found video footage him at the residence of Dr. Valencia Martinez, the biological mother of Maximum Ride. I also found records in the FBI server that keep tabs on the hybrid group's whereabouts. Those say that they have gone up to British Columbia to spend Christmas at a cottage." The image shifted again, this time to zoom in on a large wooden house located on a glacier lake in the Rockies. "The deed for this house is in the name of a Merlin Ride, which the FBI says is the name that N-41 is using. He bought the property about a week ago."

"Vere did he get enough money for da purchase?" his boss asked, scowling.

"After checking it seem he hacked into some of our own bank accounts and transferred $5 million to his own account, which he secured with his own firewalls so that we couldn't get the money back." Dr. Clark was mildly impressed that Merlin had managed to hack into the banking systems so effectively, even though he would never mention it to ter Borcht.

Ter Borcht glared at the screen as if he could vaporize Merlin through it. "You are sure dat dey are dere?"

"If the troops are ready, then we can have them en-route in six hours."

"Get it done. And send all of the DSBs with de Erasers and Jumpmechs. But don't forget to outfit dem vith dat special gear ve discussed. Ve don't vant any more of our top fighters turning traitor.

* * *

**Merlin**

I looked at the clocks in my mindscape library. One clock showed me what time it was in the real world, while the other acted like a timer to show me how much time I actually experienced. I had spent 12 hours in here, and only one and a half hours had passed outside. I figured that I could work for another four hours before dinner was put on the table.

The problem was, that even working eight times faster then normal, it would take me at least a straight week before I could finish reading the files we had been given. Nudge was a great help, and her work of helping me to sort through the files really sped up the process, there was just to much data. I was actually in favour of just giving this data to the FBI to let them sort through. But Max didn't trust them (naturally, who can trust a spook), and wanted Nudge and I to find out as much as we could. I agreed with her to a point. We would never know if the government kept information that related to us hidden, to use as payment or a threat in the future.

So Nudge and I had sat down and got to work. I was actually considering coming into my mindscape to sleep from now on, as I could take an hour's nap in just seven and a half minutes of real time. Sleeping in the real world just wasted so much time.

I heard a small ring and looked up to see a letter shoot down from the ceiling. My own way of telling myself that I had mail. I opened the envelope and started reading.

_Hi Merlin!_

_I found this folder and thought you might like to look at it._

_It looks like its about you, but the author said that he was hiding this info from ter Borcht in case he got in trouble. I don't know how it ended up on the drive, but it wasn't among the files we got from The Mill (I checked)._

_Hope it's good news!_

_NuDgE_

* * *

**The next chapter will be up soon if I know what's good for me. Akiko, if you want to borrow Merlin for your shorts (or any story, you could use a cheesy alternate universe portal or something) PM me and I'll transfer him. He enjoys riding e-mails, says their like a really fast train. I can't let Blaze have all the glory, and if I don't ask, he might do something rash.**

**PS: Tell White Wing to avoid pissing him off about the sword thing. He DOES know how to use them.**


	27. Powerful Help From an Unlikely Source

**DE: Wow, I think the short's gang needs your help Merlin.**

**Merlin: Yeah! Great new story to take part in!**

**DE: Well, I guess you better get going! Attach yourself to your bio and you'll be off.**

**Merlin: Wait, I want to see the end of the chapter. I'll leave at the end.**

* * *

_Hi Merlin!_

_I found this folder and thought you might like to look at it._

_It looks like its about you, but the author said that he was hiding this info from ter Borcht in case he got in trouble. I don't know how it ended up on the drive, but it wasn't among the files we got from The Mill (I checked)._

_Hope it's good news!_

_NuDgE_

* * *

**Merlin**

_PS- I only skimmed though it, and I didn't understand a whole lot. There are a lot of long words, and I like lots of short words._

I read the letter twice and checked the envelope. Sure enough, there was a miniature file folder in the bottom. I shook it out into my hand and tapped it twice with my finger. The folder expanded to regular size, allowing me to take the files out. I picked up the top ones and started to read.

_File no: 3JD2153_

_I know I really shouldn't be writing this down, but it is my habit as a scientist to record everything. I just hope my superiors don't find this while I'm still alive. As long as everything goes well, this report will never be needed. If not, this will be a last way for the others to save themselves. The following is excerpts of my recordings that I have made while working on the DSB project._

_Date: September 23_

_For the last several months I have been working with Dr. ter Borcht on his latest project. This is unusual, as I am a technical engineer and he is our top geneticist. The work is difficult but is very satisfying. He has me designing a special kind of computer, one that will use the human brain as the CPU and sensors placed in the body to increase the senses of the receiver by a hundred fold if needed. I have also incorporated a memory card that can give the subject total recall and access to any files that are stored on the card._

_Used medically, this system could be beneficial to all kinds of people; the deaf, dumb, and blind would all be as good as healed, and memory issues could be a thing of the past. If I can trust the rumours of Dr. ter Borcht's past projects however, I doubt that his motives are so pure._

_September 30_

_My suspicions were confirmed today. Ter Borcht will use my new system to upgrade a group of teenagers. I believe that he will then alter their DNA until they are hardly recognizable. He has asked me if I can write a program that will blank out their minds and leave them emotionless and follow orders easily. I can, but feel that what ever we do here, the privacy of the mind is one thing we should not violate. Knowledge is power, and everyone has the right to their own thoughts. I had to tell the doctor that I would write the brainwashing program though as I had a feeling that if I refused, I would be the next one on his operating table._

_October 15_

_I think that my reluctance to work with Dr. ter Borcht is beginning to show. I cannot in good conscience continue to stand by as this company destroys the lives of children. As soon as I have done all I can, I will leave this place. _

_I have spoken to an associate in the genetics department about ter Borcht's past projects. He told me of a group of avian-hybrids that escaped from the School in Arizona when another scientist released them. This group is considered both ter Borcht's greatest success and failure; the hybrids have a multitude of special abilities programed into their DNA, which has made them strong enough that they have avoided capture and termination many times. Curious, I asked him how the abilities are programed, and as one programmer to another, he was quite happy to show me. It seem that it involves micro-electronic impulses to certain centres of the brain. I have managed to copy his programing method into my own files without his knowing, and will implement them into my nurvo-system designs._

_October 21_

_This is my final entry. I am saving this into the facility's mainframe in the hopes that if my actions fail to help the children that have found themselves ter Bastard's victims, and only help them commit the crimes that he will force them to do, this record will at least help others see that what we have done is wrong, and perhaps save some lives that do not deserve death._

_I have just managed to complete the modifications to the chip. As soon as it is finished being installed, it will begin the ability creating sequence. Unfortunately I was only able to modify one chip, as all but one of the subjects have already had their chips installed. This last subject took longer to be prepared for the final surgery due to complications during earlier stages in the process. _

_Dr. Clark just came for the final chip. As he is the best hacker there is here, it is his job to install the firewall and such to prevent the subjects from hackers after I am finished with it. I only hope that he does not notice that this one has a little extra hidden in it's programing._

_The data that I stole gave instructions for various abilities, but if I had put more then one on, it would have been noticed for sure. I used the codes for an ability that I believe will be one of the most useful in effecting an escape: Telekinesis._

_I need to go now. Tonight is when I make my attempt to get out of here. I won't sign my name, as I do not want the name of the man who betrayed Itexicon to be well known._

* * *

**Merlin: Woohoo! So now you all know what my super special ability is.**

**DE: Yeah, the most common one in the book. I've lost count of all the books, movies and games that have that power somewhere. **

**Merlin: Whatever! It's popular because it's good! There's so much you can do with it, especially when you can narrow your mental focus to the molecular level, which I can do with the help of my computer brain. Make air solid, water freeze, cause a tiny heart attack in someone's arteries, the list goes on and on. **

**DE: Yeah, and Jedi have to concentrate just to call their weapon or do a mind trick.**

**Merlin: Mind tricks are telepathy, not telekinesis. The Force is much more then just lifting objects. Actually, there were some Jedi who couldn't lift anything, and there were other Jedi, like Master Plo Koon, who could use Force lightning and still stay on the good side**

**DE: Save it for a Star Wars fic when they say that lightning is evil. Get into that document before I send it without you, and let you find your own way to Akiko.**

**Merlin: Alright, it's just I think I could find some way to control the way stuff works to guide electricity, and I'm sure my body has enough power...**

**DE (sends evil glare at Merlin)**

**Merlin: Alright I'm going. Fifty bucks says I get there before Akiko reviews!**

**DE: Fifty bucks American says your right**

**Merlin: Hey, that my trick! And Max and I still owe each other...**


	28. Stop Hanging Around, It's Time to Go!

**Merlin: I still can't get over it.**

**DE: Would you like some cheese with that wine? So Akiko cancelled the story you were going to be in. You've still got FTTM to be a part of, and I'm sure she'll make it up to us somehow, probably with a good new story or a great chapter in AOM. (To those of you who don't know, Akiko is the White Wing Alchemist, and we are her biggest fans.)**

**Mer: And now I know what her character White Wing goes through (Man, those tanks hurt. But I asked for it)! **

**DE: That was pretty funny with her just dropping that tank out of nowhere. You're lucky I didn't tell her to drop something bigger on you. I can think of _way_ bigger things to drop!**

**Mer: I guess I'm lucky that you don't drop stuff on me, but now you have to get writing faster!**

**DE: Hey, I've got school and my Halo/Star Wars cross to work on! People are subscribing to that one like crazy! Anyway people, here's the next chapter of FLY TO THE MAX!**

**Mer: There's no need to shout...**

**MAX**

"Max, could you call everyone over for dinner?" My mom asked, smiling.

I grinned back. "Are you sure? I'm sure we'll enjoy it more if we eat without them." I turned and walked into the living room anyway. Nudge would kill me if I ate without her.

I looked around the room as I walked in. Nudge sitting in front of Fang's laptop, Merlin lying back in an armchair, obviously spacing out in his mind. A long cable snaked from the back of his neck into the laptop. They had both been working hard at examining the files that we had been given for Christmas. It was nice to have someone do what I told them for once. Of course, that didn't mean they wouldn't still complain about it. Ella and Fang were engaged in a game of chess, and I could tell that Fang had managed to get himself in a bind by the look on his face.

I heard a loud boom out in the woods. Three guesses where the boys were, and the first two didn't count.

I looked around. Where was Angel? She could help call the two pyromaniacs inside faster, but first I had to find her. Then I felt the familiar presence of my favourite mind-reader in my head. _Look up Max._ I followed her instructions and gasped aloud at what I saw, attracting the attention of everyone other then Merlin, who was oblivious to everything around him.

Angel was floating in mid air, just hanging near the top of the tall ceiling, _without using her wings._

After realizing that she wasn't panicked, and that she didn't seem like she was going to fall any time soon, I just sighed in exasperation. "Angel, is this another new skill?" When was this child going to stop mutating?

She giggled as if she was standing in front of me instead of twelve feet off of the ground. "I think so, but this time it isn't mine."

I looked over at the others. "Okay, who was playing in toxic waste again? Nudge, Fang? I know it wasn't Iggy or Gazzy, so who was it?" But in the few seconds that I hadn't been looking at them, other items started to float around. A couple of the chess pieces, a lamp next to Nudge, even my hair started to move upwards. I looked over at Merlin. He had no powers that we knew of, but no-one else was owning up to it.

"Nudge," I said, "Please tell Merlin to wake up. I think he could help us with our lack of gravity." I looked up at Angel. "Sweetie, be ready to fall as soon as Merlin wakes up. If you can, I think it would be good to get closer to the ground." She nodded, and pushed off the ceiling with her feet, aiming straight down. As Angel neared the ground, she flipped over like an astronaut in Zero-G and landed on her feet. Then she grabbed onto the staircase railing to keep from flying up again.

"Okay, Mer should be waking up soon. He says he's got an explanation for us," Nudge announced .

"Mer?"

"Iggy's Ig, Fang's Fnick, you, Angel, Gazzy, and I all have a whole list of other names, so I think that he needed a nickname."

Merlin sat up groaning. "I really don't think that it's necessary." As he spoke, all of the objects gently floated down to the ground. I gestured to the items.

"Want to explain why everything started floating?"

"One of the files is a secret record by the guy who designed my body's nervo-electronic system. He found a way to program my chip so that it would use electrical impulses to modify my brain and give me a special ability, that he hoped would help me escape from ter Bortch. The ability was the one he thought would be of most help in an escape; Telekinesis, or the ability to move things using willpower."

"Whoa. So it's "use the Force Luke," and all that huh?" I said, and he smirked.

"I wish. I can't do half the things that a Jedi would do, so don't be using movies as a power guide. The good news is that I can already control it pretty well, so you're not going to soar into the stratosphere anytime soon."

After that, Angel had called the other boys in, and we prepared for dinner. Mer had conveniently forgotten to mention his new ability to the boy's, who were extremely surprised to find their desserts lift off and float over to Ella and Mom, who both played their parts well by raising their hands and closing their eyes.

As we were cleaning up a thought occurred to me (I know, a big surprise right?). "Merlin, how come you didn't have this ability earlier?"

"I had only had my chip in for six hours at most when you guys rescued me. The files said that my chip's brainwashing program would wear off as soon as my ability finished developing, which takes a month, and then I would be able to make my escape. You guy's just happened to rescue me right away."

"So you wouldn't have stayed at the Mill for long anyways," Fang said, "and our rescue mission had almost no purpose?"

"You know as well as I do what my job would have been during that month. If you guy's hadn't stormed the Mill when you did, we would have hunted you down and captured you at a time of our choosing. Plus you would be fighting Eraser clones as well as an army of those robots on top of the DSB's." Suddenly Merlin stopped talking and stood stone still. "They needed time..." he muttered. He turned to Fang and I with a panicked look on his face. "We need to leave _now_! The only reason we weren't attacked before now is because they needed to start building their army! Dr. M, you and Ella get your bags packed, put everything you can in the car and get moving, find someplace safe where the authorities wouldn't look for you."

"Mer, what's going on! How would they find us!" Nudge cried.

"They have access to the FBI's records," Fang responded, following the logic. "They got in with people before, they would know their way around the computer system."

"And they would have Dr. Clark, their top hacker, working on it and he is good. If I wasn't awake and he got his hands on me he could tear my brain to pieces! He designed my firewalls, and he could take them down if he caught me off guard."

I quickly went into LEADER MODE. "Mom, do as Merlin says, we're not safe here. Guys, pack your bags, enough clothes for three days, dress warm. Only what you can carry, everything else shove in the car." I hurried to follow my own instructions, and soon the Flock was ready to go, and we were helping Mom load the van. Fang was brainstorming with Iggy and Merlin to try and see if there was any info that had been overlooked before in case we had to fight.

"How many do you think might come?"

"Anywhere from 50 to 200 Erasers, maybe more in robots, the remnants of the DSB squad."

"Which ones fly?"

"I think it's just the bots for these models."

"Ig, how many bombs do you have?"

"Not enough for those numbers. Maybe enough for the ones on the ground and in cars, but not for the air."

"Those robots are weak remember? Your right, save the bombs for the Erasers. They are going to be really tough, cause these ones are wolverine mixes instead of wolf."

"Shit."

_My thoughts exactly._ I threw the last bag into the van ran up to them. "Everybody's ready guys, lets go."

"Wait one second," Merlin called, running into the house. He came back out with a large hunting rifle and a crossbow. "The previous owner left these here, threw them in with the house." He passed the bow to Iggy and the rifle to Fang. "Strap a bomb to the bolt and shoot, you might get more of them that way." Suddenly, both he and Iggy stopped and listened. "Something mechanical is closing in on us. We're too late."

**Oh, Cliffhanger! By the way Akiko, if you want one of your OC's to come visit Merlin, I'm sure he would enjoy the company. I promise not to squash White Wing, and Neofreak could do the disclaimer (We're desperate!). Heck, even Shadows would do, Mer needs to brush up on his hand to hand skills.**

**Mer: Don't send Shadows! I may be desperate for company, but I'm not suicidal! Maybe if she promises to go easy on me...**

**DE: Anyway, I've got a choice for all my readers. Do you want the Flock to hole up in the cabin? Or should they keep on the move and try to protect the van? Tell me in a review, the first 5 votes will decide it!**


	29. Birdkids, Bad Guys, and Bombs: All Good

****

**Merlin: We are so disapointed with you guys.  
DE: We thought you enjoyed this story.  
Merlin: But seeing as nobody reviewed the last chapter, even after we asked you to vote on which way the story should go,  
DE: We now consider ourselves corrected.  
Merlin: Especially you Akiko. Come on, I even insulted you in order to get a response, and still nothing, not even an angry outburst.  
DE: I'm acctually surprised that you are still alive. I bet that Akiko has banned herself from the computer for a while, and that's why she doesn't know Merlin insulted her or that we've put up a new chapter. When she does find out, be prepared for something very heavy to fall on Mer partway through a chapter.**

**Anyway, as nobody voted, we picked the path that it felt easiest to write. Enjoy!**

**

* * *

**

**Merlin**

"U and A now!" Max yelled. "Mom, start driving and don't stop for anything! Everyone, form up over the van and try to hold them off!"

We all rushed to obey before the enemy came upon us. Now even Ella could hear the droning of the robots' engines. We flew above the tree line, the leafy branches shielding the van from view. Hopefully that would give Mom and Ella a bit more protection.

I noticed that the bots were moving closer, and now I could see what they looked like. They were the same boxy type that we had seen in Toronto, their single eye lens now covered in a more protective frame. Their legs were thicker now too, and they flew by using rockets that were installed on the back of the legs. Each robot carried an Everine (my name for the wolverine Eraser) in their arms, and there appeared to be about 100 of the fliers. That meant 200 things we had to kill.

"Iggy!" I called. "Take as many out as you can now! It's a two for one special!"

He pulled a large ball of wires and tubes out from his bag and stuck it on the end of a crossbow bolt. He easily pulled back the taunt string and set the bolt in place.

"Twelve o'clock, ten degrees up, hold it steady," Gazzy instructed, guiding his friend. "Shoot!" he cried, and we all watched as Iggy's bolt flew in to the centre of the swarm, and exploded with a bang and some fireworks. Twenty of the iBots were blown to bits, their furry payloads screeching as they found themselves plummeting to earth.

"Great shot Ig!" Max called. "You got any bigger ones?"

"We've got about three more of the same, and ten small ones," he answered. "Gazzy's carrying the big one, but it's to big to shoot at them!"

"Next time I tell you to stop making bombs, don't listen!" She yelled. "Okay, Iggy you keep shooting them with your three shots, Everyone else, grab a small from Gazzy and throw it when you've got a good shot! Fang, take the big one! Total, I need you to find a clearing where we can group them together after they land." Ah, I see what she's planning.

"I'm not running away! I'll tear them to shreds!" That dog just didn't get it, he wouldn't be more then a snack for one of those hybrids.

"Go Total!" Angel cried. He seemed to think about it for a moment, then hurried to follow his owner's direction.

"Angel, Merlin, as soon as we're on the ground, focus on the Erasers with me. Fang, Nudge, you take care of the robots and watch Iggy and Gazzy's back while they bomb the heck out of everyone."

We split up and headed towards the flying army before they could react intelligently. I swooped in between the bots, kicking their rockets to force them off course and stabbing their Everine passengers with my knife wherever I could. Soon, even the primitive brains of the iBots figured out that they could fight better if they dropped off the hybrids in the woods, and the entire fleet dived into the trees for a second before rising up again.

Remembering Max's orders, I followed their route and found myself landing on top of an Everine's head. I stomped down hard and used him as a platform to help me jump into a tree. I leaped down onto another, landing dagger first. Ignoring the smell of his blood, I slashed at the one I had stunned with my jump. Jumping again, I waited for his companions to investigate the commotion. I didn't have long to wait before my hunting started again.

**

* * *

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MAX

You know, considering that we started out outnumbered about thirty to one, we weren't doing too badly. Iggy's bombs had made a real dent in their forces, taking out fifty more robots and thirty Erasers. Now Angel and I were working together to fight off the rest of the Erasers. We kept on the move, Angel convincing them to fight each other while I settled for the traditional method of punching and kicking the crap out of them. Above us, Nudge and Fang were making short work of the shoddy robots. Nudge was especially dangerous for them, as she could pull them into the trees or each other with her magnetic ability. The crashes usually resulted in as satisfying boom as the left over fuel exploded, and I had a feeling that Iggy would find lots of new materials if he had enough time to do some scavenging.

A clawed hand swiped towards me, passing just over my head as I ducked. Guess I'll have to pay more attention to what I'm doing now. The Erasers had started to regroup, meaning that instead of one on one fights where I chose who to fight, they were now coming after us with their numbers again. I kicked the one who missed me into a tree, and prepared for the charge of two more. As expected, they ran forward, mouths open and paws out wide. Unexpectedly, one jumped over my head and landed behind me, trying to get at my back. I dived to the side, trying to get them both in front of me again before they had a chance to hit me.

I was slightly disappointed that I didn't even get a chance to hit one before he went flying though the air into a boulder. I saw Merlin nearby with his arm stretched out towards the fallen Eraser, and realized that he had come to my rescue.

"I didn't really need any help you know," I called as I slammed the second Eraser's head into the ground. "I've taken on worse before."

"Better safe the sorry," he answered, throwing his knife at another that had just come out of the woods. Soon the knife floated back to him, ready for another throw. "You know, I was expecting these Everines to be more of a challenge, what with their being part wolverine."

"I take it Everine is your name for these things?" Now why didn't I think of a name earlier?

"Yeah, and I named the fliers iBots." Oh, that one's good.

Angel walked out of the trees, a large Everine beside her, clearly under her control. "I think that the Erasers were smarter, and that made it harder."

"Still, they make up for it in numbers," I said. "Let's lead them to the clearing that Total is finding for us. Can you locate him Angel?"

"Yep, just follow me." She turned around and started running deeper into the forest, her brainwashed bodyguard following close behind.

"Merlin, you go with her, I'm going to check on the van and make sure they're all right."

"Fly to the max, there's not much time left. I can hear more of them in the woods."

I nodded my acknowledgement to him and took off, finding the road quickly, and heading down it at close to maximum speed. I caught up with the van just in time, as two iBots were in the process of shooting up the vehicle. Fortunately, they were aiming for the wheels, but even that would put a serious cramp on our getting out of here. I clotheslined one as I came by at super speed, which nearly dislocated my arm in the process. We crashed into the roof of the car with a loud bang, which made my mom think that the van was being boarded. She sent the van into a sharp turn which _must_ have put it on two wheels, and both the robot and I were sent rolling onto the road. Lucky for me, I landed on top.

I hopped up and started running after the meandering menace on wheels, and realized where my own driving skills came from. With a little luck, she would take the last iBot out without needing me.


	30. No Other Choices

**DE: I'm sorry to say that this will be one of the last chapters in this story. Don't worry, I've got the sequel planned out already.  
Merlin: Wow, I can't believe that my story is almost done! It still seems like there are a couple of loose ends.  
DE: Actually, your story is finished, and there is only one more chapter to post. You'll see how it plays out....or not.**

**

* * *

**

**Merlin**

The iBots hovered above us where we stood in the centre of a large clearing, surrounded by the remaining Everines. Fang and Iggy stood protectively over Gazzy, who was on the ground, patching up the large cut on his arm. Angel and Nudge looked even more exhausted then I felt from using our abilities so much, and Max was no where to be seen. Total was baring his teeth and growling, but he was mostly ignored.

There were only about 40 enemies left, but we were exhausted and in pain from the many cuts we had suffered in the fight. We had to end this quickly.

I moved over to where Fang and Iggy were holding a huddle over Gazzy.

"Do you still have Big Boy II?" Iggy asked, and Fang nodded.

"It would solve all out problems if we could set it off, but the robots will force us to stay here and be blown up with them," he replied. "and the Everines would probably make a suicide rush as well. They don't care if they get hurt, they just want to kill us."

I frowned. "Then why haven't they attacked yet? Their all just watching us right now."

Angel's voice sounded in our heads. _Reinforcements._

We all looked at each other, and understood that we wouldn't be able to survive a second wave.

"I've got an idea, but it's crazy." I said.

Iggy shrugged. "We've got nothing to lose. Besides, we've found that crazy usually works more often then the sane plans."

"Total, come here and hold this. Nudge, Angel, I'm going to need you're help on this. Here's what we're going to do..."

**

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**

**MAX**

I raced towards where Angel told me to meet them. Apparently Merlin had made a plan to get them out of a tight spot, but he needed me to be nearby in order for it to work. I came in view of the clearing and gasped.

Merlin and Nudge were standing in the middle of the clearing with their arms raised, with a freaking _big_ bomb between them. I could clearly see on it's digital display that there was less then a minute left before it blew. All around them, Everines and iBots floated in the air, helpless to move. Fang, Iggy, and Angel ran out into the tree line and out of sight, Iggy carrying Gazzy on his shoulder.

As soon as they were clear, the two in the centre raised their arms higher, and started drawing their floating victims in closer to themselves. Soon they were surrounded by an asteroid belt of snarling Everines and motionless iBots. All this time, the bomb ticked down lower and lower. There were only about ten seconds left now.

_Max, Merlin says this would be a good time to save Nudge now._

I didn't waste any time responding to her and poured on the speed. I was about a half mile away, and I was flying faster then I had ever done before. Time seemed to slow down, and I noticed all sorts of minor details, like how annoying the wind in my eyes was, and the sweat poring down Nudge and Merlin's faces.

Nine seconds left.

I saw Merlin glance at me, and an opening in the dome of enemies began to open.

Eight seconds.

The opening grew wider and became a tunnel, and Merlin grabbed Nudge by her arms.

Seven seconds.

He began to spin around, swinging Nudge out before him like a helicopter blade.

_Six._

Merlin let go of Nudge, sending her flying out of the tunnel away from me, and I realized exactly what Angel had said.

_Five._

The iBots began to recover from the effects of Nudge's magnetism now that she was out of range, and I entered the opening, aiming to catch Nudge before she hit the ground, and caught her under her arms as I exited the dome of Everines. The impact of her body against mine was a shock, but I couldn't take the time to pay attention to it.

_Four._

I landed quickly where the rest of the flock was waiting. I turned back to see Merlin walking towards the bomb, his arms at his side.

_Three._

The dome of enemies collapsed, the Everines dropping to the ground.

_Two._

Merlin spread his arms wide as he stepped forward, standing right on top of the bomb. He turned and faced towards us as the Everines started to lunge towards him.

_One._

He mouthed _I'm sorry_, and gave a jaunty salute before closing his eyes.

_Zero._

We watched in horror as Iggy's baby detonated, creating a massive fireball, and we felt the shock-wave a second after. It was so powerful that it knocked me onto my back. Everything within 50 feet of the bomb was quickly incinerated.

Fang put his arm around me and I leaned into him, stunned. We stood there blankly watching the fires burn on the field, until Iggy broke the silence. "Okay, that was at least a 15 for shock-wave. How did you rate the fireworks Gaz?"

The Gasman couldn't even speak, and he just shook his head mutely. Iggy started to figure out something was wrong, and asked what happened. I realized that no-one had known what Merlin was planing before the last seconds, not even Angel, until Angel had relayed his last message.

"Iggy," I said quietly, "Mer was in that explosion." Even saying the words couldn't bring out the reality of how we felt, but they were the only words we had.

"Incredible," we heard a voice say. "I didn't think that the Runt would have it in him to do something like that." We turned to see four member's of the DSB squad standing ten feet away. I recognized the one who had spoken as Snarly, the wolverine hybrid that Merlin had called Billy when we were at Medieval Times. The only ones missing were the owl and fly hybrids that we had fought in Toronto. We all started to get into fighting positions, as tired as we were, but he held up his hand to wave off our concern. "Don't worry, we're not here for you. Our orders were to make sure that all of the files in your possession are destroyed, which meant destroying the traitor. If we got you, it was an added bonus, but all we need now is that laptop."

"How dare you call him a traitor!" Total snarled. "He was willing to die to save us, and you sit on the sidelines while your troops are slaughtered!"

"They are not our troops," Billy protested. "They had orders to eliminate anyone on the hit list, we only need to recover the data. And the four of us no longer want to serve those scientists anyway. They released us from the brainwashing program to make us more dangerous. It has, but it made us realize that we should be angry at them instead. Only N-35 and N-38 still want to hurt you, as revenge from their failure in Toronto. They suffered much pain because they failed, and they blame you for it. They are with the Jumpmech squadron that is on it's way. We are on a time limit here and they have rigged our suits to blow if we turn against them. We want you to destroy the laptop yourself, and remove these bombs from our suits. Then we take those bombs, and throw them in the idiots faces before we destroy their base. Then we will hope never to cross paths with you again."

"Why can't we just remove the bombs and you go back without destroying the data," Fang asked.

"I have to report in and tell them that the mission is complete, and they can tell if I am lying to them. If I lie, we all go up in smoke."

I thought it over. If they were lying, we were dead, and if they were telling the truth, we might get away, but only with their help. "Iggy, Gazzy, remove the bombs, but stay close enough that they can't use them without getting themselves caught in the blast."

They nodded, and moved quickly to the DSBs and started to work, while they held their arms out to the sides, except that the ones that Gazzy worked on plugged their noses with one hand. They obviously remembered what Gazzy had done last time they met. In a couple minutes the job was done, and I motioned for Fang to hand his laptop over to them. He glared at them the whole time, and I couldn't blame him. That laptop had been around almost as long as Total, and was our main connection with the world at large.

Billy handed the computer to the bear hybrid, who crushed it under his foot easily. Then Billy touched his headpiece and spoke into a microphone. "Primary objectives complete sir, all data destroyed, heading back to base." Without another word, they walked into the clearing and flew away using the jetpacks built into their suits.

We waited for a moment to be sure that they weren't coming back, then took off running, running away from the stench of fire and death that was falling on the area. I lead them towards the road where I had left Mom and Ella. After a few minutes we reached the road and started flying south, using it as a guiding path as we flew low. After about ten minutes of flying, we caught up with the van, and Angel told Mom to pull over.

We landed and immediately I was pulled into my mother's arms. "Thank goodness you're safe," she said. She motioned the others over, and soon we were all together in one massive group hug. Even Total jumped up and stood on Ella and Angel's shoulders to be part of it. It felt so good to be part of a group like this, and it made us all feel like we were safe again.

After a moment we broke apart, and Mom looked over the group, taking in the injuries we had suffered. Then she frowned and asked where Merlin was.

And then the flood waters came flowing out.

Almost every member of the Flock started to cry, the only exception being Fang, who stood there with a pain on his face very few people know how to spot. Iggy and Gazzy were both standing there, looking like they wanted to stop their tears but unable to do so. Nudge, so friendly and emotional, was giving out heart-wrenching sobs, while Angel knelt down and hugged Total, whose own tears stained his dark fur. I realized that Angel must be feeling worse then anyone else, as she could feel everyone else's sadness as well as her own. I knelt down and hugged her as she hugged Total, not even trying to stop the tears that were streaming down my own face. All of the sadness that we had kept inside in our flight and during our meeting with the former DSB's just came spilling out.

Mom figured out what had happened immediately, and started to help us up and into the van. "I'm so sorry," she whispered as she guided me to my seat. Soon we were on the road again, heading back towards civilization, away from the cottage, away from the enemies that were chasing us still, and away from where Merlin had sacrificed himself for us.

_Carry a piece of him inside yourself Maximum, just as you do for Ari, because what you remember might be all you have left someday._

For once my Voice wasn't talking in riddles, and I agreed with what it said this time. Merlin would be remembered well by us.

_Voice, why did he have to sacrifice himself. There had to be another way._

_Max, sometimes you have to make a sacrifice in order to protect those you care about. Merlin understood that, and was willing to pay the price. There isn't always a way out._

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**There will be one more chapter after this, including an Epilogue, credits to where I got my ideas (besides the obvious of James Patterson), and thank you's to all of my readers.**

**Have any of you ever killed off an OC of your's? How about one that was mostly an avatar of yourself? That's writer's suicide, and it's not a nice feeling.**

**If Merlin was here right now, he would probably have a sarcastic remark about that.**


	31. Revelations

**MAX**

After hours of driving through the night, Mom finally pulled up in front of a Best Western Inn in a small town. She looked back a the others, who were almost all asleep already. The only ones who hadn't cried themselves to sleep was Fang as Iggy, who both had their arms around the younger ones. Again I remembered how young they were, and how much loss they had seen. It had never hit us this hard before though. Merlin had been with us for far longer then Ari, and they had bonded with him more then they would have ever been able to with my unfortunate half-brother. I thought back to how Fang had agreed that he belonged with us only one day after he met us. That was an amazing thing to begin with, but it had already been an incredible day. Breaking into the Mill, rescuing Mer, sightseeing, the fights with Itex's minions. Even for us, that had been a busy day.

Then there had been the month we had spent at Mom's house. That had to have been one of the nicest times since we had lived at the E-shaped house in the mountains. A whole month in a nice place with people I could trust completely, with the most dangerous people around only wanting an interview with us. We had spent that month just having fun, and teaching Merlin to fly and fight better. He had proved to have a natural talent with a knife, and had often mentioned he would love to use a sword if there was one light enough to carry around all the time.

Then there had been his Christmas with us. It seemed like months ago now. He had done so much to make it special, and it had been, until Itex decided to come back and try again.

I thought back to when the bomb had gone off, and realized that he had truly believed that the only way to protect us was to sacrifice himself. He had know too much for ter Borcht to let him live. Even after all we had been through, those files had contained more info on what Itex did, and how they did it, then we had ever known.

Mom came back into the car, and the four of us who were awake carried the rest into the room that Mom had gotten for us. She had made sure to get one of the biggest suites with lots of beds and couches, so that we wouldn't have to be separated from each other. We all needed as much comfort as we could get.

I went over and sat next to Gazzy and Nudge, who had woken up. She looked at me, with her eyes red from crying, even though she had no tears left. "Why did he do it Max? We could have made it out of there even if he hadn't done that!"

Nudge had been close to Merlin when he had been around. He had shared her love of computers, and was the only one of us to never complain about her ceaseless talking. She had volunteered to help him with the mysterious data card we had received before I could even ask her. That said something, as it was hard enough to get the flock to do something when it wasn't a hard job.

"Sweetie, Merlin knew that he was the target of all those bad guys. They wouldn't stop until he was gone, so he took out the people who would hurt us while making sure they had no reason to come after us." I kissed her on the head. "Go to sleep, you'll feel a little better in the morning." She nodded and lay down on the couch, and I tucked her in with a large blanket.

I went into another room and stared out the window. Fang came over and sat next to me on one of the beds.

"Max, there's something I need to tell you." He looked nervous, like he wasn't sure he could say anything. "When we first met Merlin I didn't want him in the Flock. It wasn't just because I thought he would betray us. You and Angel convinced me pretty quick that he wasn't a threat, or at least not an intentional one. What I really didn't like was what his being part of the Flock would mean."

"What would do you mean?"

"I mean that I was worried that he would come between you and me. I love you Max, even if you aren't ready to love me back. I was afraid that you would fall in love with Merlin, and then I would never be with you."

I was dumbstruck. I knew Fang cared about me deeply, that had been obvious from all of the kissing he had tried to initiate with me, but I can't remember him ever saying it so simply. It had always been slightly hidden before.

"Well, Merlin wasn't stupid, and he figured out my feelings towards you pretty quickly. Just before we went to the CN Tower, he confronted me about it. Flat out, he told me that there was no way that you would ever pick him over me, and pretty much said that I should go after you with everything I had. He was pretty straightforward that way."

"Yeah, he never hid anything from us."

"I want to stop hiding things too Max. I want us to be together, no more messing around with other people, no more pretending. I was never interested in Brigid, or that girl back in Virginia. I was trying to make you jealous."

"You did," I answered. Remembering that right now was not doing much for my mood. "It also hurt me a lot."

"I promise that I will never do that again Max. You are the only one I love, and I never want to lose you."

"You won't," I cried, hugging him strongly. "I promise that I won't ever leave you."

He looked at me in the eyes, and smiled, a big grin that Fang almost never uses. He leaned forward and gently kissed me on the lips, managing to put all his tenderness and caring into one touch. For the first time, I returned the kiss, and we stayed like that for a minute, just enjoying the moment.

"Geez, if I had known that it would take me dieing to get you two together, I would have done it ages ago."

We turned, stunned, to see Merlin himself pull himself in the window. He hopped onto the floor and grinned. "Miss me?" he asked.

SLAP! I slapped him as hard as I could, sending him to the floor. The grin was back after a second though.

"I'll take that as a yes. If you were really mad a me, you would have used a fist and broken my jaw."

I helped him up and grabbed him in a hug. We broke after a second, and Fang and I both started smiling wildly. Fang shook his head in disbelief. "I don't know how you did it, but congrats on making it back."

Mer sat down on the bed and started to explain. "It was pretty simple really. Did you know that when you are right next to a bomb when it goes off, the shock-wave and explosion reach you at the exact same time? I just needed to keep the explosion away from my body for a second before the concussion threw me into the air. The rest of the explosion going out the sides took care of the Everines, and provided a smokescreen so no one saw me fly up and away. I knew the DSB's and the rest wouldn't stop until I was dead, so I made them think I was. I'm sorry I couldn't let you know, but if you weren't upset, it wouldn't have been believable." He frowned. "I wasn't really sure if I could shield myself from the fire like that, but there was no other option, and I was lucky.

I thought for a minute. "Okay, you're forgiven, but what are we going to do now?"

He grinned, this time more evilly. "If everyone else is already asleep, I'll surprise them in the morning. Will pancakes be okay again?"

"Fry up some sausage and you've got a deal."

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Dygen Entreri:

**I would like to thank all of my reviewers:**

**Randomitis Sufferer, DANZNQUEEN, 6Dark6Flyer, Bedelato, Madeline Cullen, kariepaige08, StarofCalamity, MoonStarWithWings, for the love of Iggy, goldenwingchick (), pyroman-15-, Unrealistic Dreamer, KiraKia, Angel Ride, AlssaHsu, Shojo-Chan, and Laxgrl2222**

**My subscribers: **

**Randomitis Sufferer, blackberry01, Madeline Cullen, kariepaige08, StarofCalamity, The-Winged-One, MoonStarWithWings, for the love of Iggy, pyroman-15-, KiraKia, and Just Call Me Neko, tangerine10, leshawnaseville 15, Twilight Gazer13, Just Call Me Neko, and Shojo Chan.**

**And everyone who has made this story a Favourite:**

**6Dark6Flyer, Bedelato, The-Winged-One, for the love of Iggy, tinker4939, Madeline Cullen, foxxstar2412, Ayrien, UnrealisticDreamer, pyroman-15-, allymariah, and KiraKia**

**A big thank you to 22avidreader, one of my teachers from school, for following this story, even though I know that your computer has been messed up for a while.**

**Finally, I would like to give a gigantic thank you to the White Wing Alchemist, also known as Akiko, or the Almighty Author to her characters.**

**You and your characters of White Wing, Neofreak, Logan, and all the rest have inspired me to continue writing. I always eagerly awaited your reviews, and always love to see a new chapter about Serenity. I was so disappointed when you cancelled some of your stories, especially White Snow Fire, which I though had so much promise. You have been my most faithful reviewer, and I wish you luck in your own stories. Never delete any again, cause you never know when you might want to continue them, and I hope you conquer your Writer's Block.**

**Merlin: I also want to thank you, cause White Wing said you actually cried when Dygen "killed" me. It's nice to know that I have that much charm over people who have never seen me. I would also like to thank you for giving Dygen the courage to let me have my own voice in the shorts, which your characters have always had.**

**Dygen: The totals at this point stand as:**

**Words: 42,6709**

**Chapters: 31**

**Reviews: 59**

**Hits: 3,003**

**Favs: 15**

**Alerts: 11**

**Just to remind you, this story takes place just before MAX would have started, so there was no real Fax where our favourite bird kid couple would have admitted their feelings. **

**Merlin: There will be a sequel, as we are currently in the process of updating the chapters in Fable II: The Flock Chapters so that it include yours truly. If DE keeps writing long enough, there will be a whole series of crossovers staring me.**

**Dygen: If you want to read more by me, put me on your Author Alert list, and I'll here from you in the new stories. If you don't like crossovers for some reason, I'll be sorry to loose you, but crossovers have always been, and will continue to be, my favourite type of story. Even this one is a type of crossover, as it combines my life and the world of the Flock.**

**Read On Always ~ Dygen Entreri**


	32. Credits

**Credits:**

Kidnapping Garbage Truck: Marvel comics Uncanny X-Men, when the assassin Arcade captures the X-men and forces them to compete in the deadly games of Murderland.

SD card in Merlin's head: Halo's Master Chief`s neural interface, the one that he puts Cortana's chip in.

Mindscape: The original idea is from the Matrix, with the old dial up phone a tribute to that.

Merlin`s death: Akiko`s scene where Serenity stays behind.

Telekinesis: Every single movie, book, and game where a character can use it.

And of course for every Maximum Ride character: James Patterson`s Maximum ride series, up to the end of The Final Warning.


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